Mattawan Results

On Saturday, March 22 we headed for Mattawan. Everyone did. We had a full house, complete with a bus. It was a good day to work on pieces, as well as complete class assignments. So how did we do?

Finalists
Christina Le (Impromptu Open) -- 5th
Evan VanderHoff (Impromptu 9/10), his first time! -- 5th

Semis:
Esther Creswell (Oratory) -- her first time in Semis!
Gilles/Jin (Duo)
Tom Prangley (Storytelling) -- his first time!
Nate Ritsema (Broadcasting
Tom Tyrell (Broadcasting) -- his first time!

Out for the First Time:
Tom Prangley (Storytelling) * Tiffany Kilts (Storytelling) * Raven Barnes (Prose) * Rain Johnson (Duo, with Montana Welton) * Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Rebecca Hansen, Lauren Wisely, Jordan Kopecki, Allegra Parseca) * Evan Vanderhoff (Impromptu) * Tom Tyrell (Broadcasting) * Javier Orozco (Broadcasting)

Our average score: 96.37
Better than the week before, but still reflects the youth of our team.

WOHO Results

Some went north, some went to Solo & Ensemble, and the rest went Holland High School on March 15. There were several pleasant surprises.

Finalists
Gilles/Jin (Duo) -- 7th
Catherine Khuu (Extemp), her first time! -- 7th

Semis
Dan Hast (Oratory), his first time!

Out for the First Time
Ann Brown (Poetry) * Sarah Reimink (Storytelling) * Montana Welton (Poetry) * Erin Freeman (Storytelling) * Jessi McKellar (Prose) * Amber Goodrich (D.I.) * Tabitha Haight/Pagiel Roland (Duo) * Steven Eden/Catherine Sternberg (Duo) * Colleen Knox / Jennifer Shamel (Duo) * David Caselletto (Impromptu)

With so many new, our average score was down: 96.07.

Transportation Woes (update)

We have a bus!
You may have heard by now -- we have a bus for our trip to Mattawan on Saturday, March 22. With early registration and a slightly longer drive, we sure could use letting some one else do the driving. We do have to charge a fare, however. It will be the same as last year: $5.

We Still Need Drivers for Holland
If your student is competing and you are willing to drive, we could use you. Right now we have 30 students going, but only 5 drivers. We are at least two cars short for transportation needs. If you're willing to help, contact Mr Harris (wmrharris [at] sbcglobal [dot] net.), or Ms P.

Here are our drivers to date: Brown (Ann's parents); Rayor (Daniel Hast's mom); Reimink (Sarah's parents), Mr Creswell (Esther's dad) and Mr Harris.

Portage Results

There were lots of good things about Portage: we had a chance to take along some of our new students, and our experienced performers had a chance to strut their stuff.

For those of you who love metrics, the measure we use for each tournament (and for the season) is the average score / round. For Portage our score was 96.18.

Welcome First Timers!

• Aja Kilgore, Poetry • Emily Oxfford, Prose • Walter Gilles, Impromptu •Margaret Root, Extemp

Return to the Semis
Gilles/Jin (Duo)

Our Final Round Performers

• Christina Le -- 3rd, Impromptu 9/10 • Nate Ritsema -- 5th, Broadcasting (his first final round of the season!) • Catherine Khuu -- 5th, Extemp (her first time ever in the Finals)

And S-o-o-o Close to a Sweepstakes.
Rankings of 1, 2 or 3 go into the sweepstakes tabulation. We ended up one point shy of third place. We're off to a great season!

Portage Northern Comes Next

The Forensics Season picks up speed as we get ready for the Menchinger Invitational at Portage -- it used to be the "Huskie" Invitational, but now bears the name of Portage Northern's great and now retired coach, James Menchinger. (Trivia: he was Ms P's supervising teacher back back back... well, back then).

So lets go to the details.

Transportation
This year we need to use car pool arrangements when we go to tournaments. The costs fo buses exceed our fund-raising abilities. Don't fret, however. We will be using buses for Regionals and for State.

Drivers this Saturday are Peterson, Harris, Groenler, and Creswell.


Schedule

• 6:30 a.m. -- Arrive at City
• 6:45 a.m. -- Leave City
• 7:45 a.m. -- Arive at Portage Northern. Register.
• 8:30 a.m. -- General Meeting (auditorium)
• 8:55 a.m. -- Round 1
• 12:30 p.m. -- 1:30 p.m. Lunch
• 5:30 p.m. -- Awards
• 6:30 p.m. --Leave Portage Northern.
• 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. -- Supper and review scores
• 8:30 p.m. -- Arrive at City (we will phone ahead).

Food Costs
They will have a cafeteria line open for lunch. Many bring their own lunches. For supper we plan to stop at Fazolis or a Wendy's -- about $5 range.

So Who's Going?
We're taking 17 individual competitors, plus the Multiple is launching this weekend. As you can see, almost all are new:

• Broadcast -- Nathan Ritsema
• Extemp -- Catherine Khuu, Margaret Root
• Informative -- Riet Groenleer
• Oratory -- Esther Creswell, Daniel Hast, Manuel Garcia
• Sales -- Jenna Dean
• Impromptu 9/10 -- Walt Gilles, Christina Le
• Dramatic Interp -- Alissa Stone, Celeste Kessler
• Duo -- Max Gilles/Yefei Jin
• Multiple -- The Sweet Smell of Success (Keenan Foley, Edward Lofton, Will Hoyer, Anna VandenBerg, Anna Witte, Meagan Winegar)
• Poetry -- Sharon Hay
• Prose -- Emily Oxfford, Aja Kilgore
• Storytelling 9/10 -- Emily Witte

Christian High Results

Christian High was smaller than Frankenmuth (250 kids or so), but with both Portage Central and Portage Northern in the room, the competition was every bit as fierce.

We brought seven competing, mostly in PA. Here's how we did:

Finals
Christina Le, Impromptu (5th!)

Semis
Riet Groeenleer, Informative (7th -- so close!), Nathan Ritsema (10th)

First time
Manuel Garcia, Impromptu; Kayla Milanowski, Poetry.

Adding to their Experience
Catherine Khuu, Extemp; Sharon Hay, Poetry.

From here on out the competitions get tougher. Next up will be Portage Northern.

Christian High on Saturday

Saturday will be the first major tournament on the west side of the state: the Eagle Invitational at Grand Rapids Christian High School.

If you're going, you will need to be there by 8 a.m. For those who are not familiar with the location, Grand Rapids Christian is located on the SE side of the city, on Plymouth. Here's the map:

So far, here is who we have signed up:

Extemp -- Catherine Khuu
Informative -- Riet Groenleer
Impromptu -- Christina Le, Manuel Garcia
Broadcasting -- Nathan Ritsema
Poetry -- Sharon Hay

We'll update as we more sign up. If you would like to compete let Ms P and Mr H know as soon as possible. The deadline is Wednesday, noon. So Tuesday pm at the latest.

Back from Frankenmuth

Saturday was our first Forensics tournament of the 2008 campaign. We had six students take their pieces "out of the box:"

• Christina Le -- Impromptu 9/10
• Catherine Khuu -- Extemp (her first in this piece!)
• Riet Groenleer -- Informative
• Nathan Ritsema -- Broadcasting
• Sharon Hay -- Poetry (her first IE piece!)
• Brandy Andresen -- Prose

Experience paid off with several students taking seconds in their rounds, and with Christina moving into the semi-finals. Congratulations.

Next up: Christian.

Novi Update -- The Largest Ever

The numbers really are astounding: by most counts we have 75 students registered for the Legislative Debate at Novi. The most immediate impact is that it will mean 3 or (if any last minute registrations show up) 4 chambers. Planning for the event will keep students in the same chamber for both preliminary sessions. This will be an advantage to the shy and to the newbie, since the loner the event goes, the more comfortable they get with the process, and the more likely they are to talk.

This dynamic will likely mean that the first session goes through the entire agenda, but the second session may talk longer.

The impact of large chambers.
In the present arrangement, we will have 25 students in each chamber.

The larger the chamber, the more challenging the event becomes. Your audience is bigger so right there, it gets scary. And the number who can get out of the chamber to the Super Session is also decreased. With 3 chambers, that would mean advancing the top 8; with 4 chambers, we advance the top 6 or 7. Speaking up will be a necessity.

And here's the other problem: the time is limited. Even with 2 hours, that gives students perhaps 25 speaking slots, if that. Cross-Ex will be restricted -- that simply takes time from other speakers.

More room for POs
The upside of multiple chambers (and slightly longer time), is more room for students to try out being a Presiding Officer (PO). There could be room for as many as 12 different POs -- given the experienced schools who will be coming, we should have not problem filling these slots.

Who's Coming
These are the schools to date:

• Grand Rapids City
• Ionia
• Jackson County Western
• Kalamazoo Central
• Kenowa Hills
• Novi
• Portage Central
  
• Rochester Adams
  
• Utica Stevenson

A Word about Food
Planning has food (sub sandwiches, some healthy snacks as well as the unhealthy) on site. With the big mall up the road and it being Holiday Shopping season, going out would be rather difficult. It may make sense to pack along some extra water, snacks etc.

Finally, the Bills and How to Prepare
Here is the list of the bills, by session:

Session One:
Bill # 3 Ban the Sale of Dangerous Outdoor Chemicals. Rinck, Grand Rapids City,
Bill # 7 Mandatory Drug & Alcohol Testing for Pilots & Aircraft Personnel. Ghandikota, Novi
Bill # 8 Mass Transit Protection. Boehme, Kalamazoo Central
Bill # 11 Deny FEMA Aid to Predicted Disaster Areas. Hong, Portage Central
Bill # 14 Be "One Less." Bharadwaj, Novi (mandatory Gardasil vacc.)
Res # 1 Salvage Meritocracy. Groenleer, City

Round 2
Bill # 1 Create Emergency Draft. Cross, Jackson Western
Bill # 6 Ban Radio Censorship. Srini, Novi
Bill # 9 Encourage Use of Bio-Fuels. Lindsay, Rochester Adams)
Bill # 13 Surrogate a New Drinking Age and Implicate a New Driving Age. Potts, Portage Central
Bill # 15 Stop Racism at Airports. Khare, Novi

Super Session
Bill # 2 Change the Voting Day. Ritsema, City
Bill # 4 What's Your Number? Le, City (Mandate Glycemic Index info on nutrition labels)
Bill # 5 Fund Parthogenesis Research. Israel, Novi
Bill # 10 Increase Funding to Anti Terror Military Groups. Bogren, Portage Central
Bill # 12 Response to North Korean Atrocities. Luo, Portage Central

Preparation Strategy
The first session will see the least discussion. Expect the session to go through the entire packet. Pick the top three bills to prepare for, and you should get your chance to speak.

The second session, more students will be speaking. Discussion will go loner. Consequently, you want to have data and ideas that let you speak to a majority of the bills; four minimum.

The Super Session is the money round. Your rank here will determine final ranking. Start your research here. Find articles, or positions on each of the bills. Often a Super Session will only get to half of its bills -- but which half? So be prepared.

Comments on the bills will follow in upcoming posts.

Novi's Next

Our next Legislative Debate event will be on Saturday, December 8, when we travel to Novi High school. Novi is outside of Detroit on I -69 (see map below).

So far three schools from the west side have expressed interest: Portage Central, Kalamazoo Central, and city. Between them they will bring some 40 students -- plan on having three chambers. Three chambers does pose some difficulties, since only 7 or 8 will advance to the Super Session.

Bills.
These will be due by Wednesday, November 28.

Transportation
Car pool. Given the interest in the event, we will need extra drivers (even a van can't hold everyone who wants to come).

Costs
We will stop for dinner on the way back, so be prepared for both lunch and dinner (and morning food, if you would like).

Time Line

• 6:45 a.m. Meet at City
• 7:00 a.m. Leave City
• 9:20 a.m. Arrive Novi HS (this allows for a quick road stop on the way)
• 9:00-9:30 Registration
• 9:45 General meeting
• 10:00- 11:30 Round one (this may go a little longer)
• 11:45-1:15 Round two
• 1:15-2:00 Lunch
• 2:00-4:00 Super Session
• 4:15 - 4:30 Awards
• 4:45 p.m. Leave Novi
• 8:00 p.m. Arrive City (with break for food)

And just where is Novi High School?

Here:
24062 Taft Road,
Novi, MI 48374

View Larger Map

Century Club Grows at Portage

Saturday's tournament saw more students enter the Century Club by earning at least one 1/100 in a round. This week, team members brought home 12 top scores:

Duo: Wilson/Quinn -- 4 (!)
Multiple: Jekyll & Hyde -- 3!
Extemp: Michael Schafer -- 3!
Impromptu: Sara Oliai --1
Informative: Colin Tokarek -- 1

A Second Trophy

Saturday's event at Portage Northern was again satisfying for City High. With 9 of 22 schools in the "Large School" Category, City High took third in Sweepstakes points, behind Grand Rapids Christian and Portage Central. (As host, Portage Northern was ineligible for sweepstakes trophies. But boy oh boy did they make their presence felt. )

To earn third place, City had four entries in the finals:

Sara Olia took 6th in Impromptu

Cooper Wilson and Corine Quinn, aka Wilson/Quinn, came in 4th in Duo, while picking up 4 1/100 of a possible 8. Way to go!

Michael Schafer placed 3rd in Extemp, with a strong performance including 3 1/100s, and 4 2/99s.

And the Multiple (Jekyll & Hyde) took 2nd overall, including taking a 1/100 in the final round.

And it wasn't just the final round...
Other students also enjoyed success. First time performer Jessica Miller (Poetry) made it to the semi-finals, as did Storyteller Julia Stuart, who also was in the semis at Christian last week.

Also in the semis were two Informative presentations: Riet Groenleer (Food Styling) and senior Colin Tokarek (Oil). Like Stuart, Riet had also made the semi's at Christian.

We also had two other first time performers: Emily Witte (Storytelling) and Katie Barber (Storytelling).

Century Club Now Open

The Century Club honors those who score 1/100 in one of their rounds. Saturday at Grand Rapids Christian, three team members were able to achieve this -- no doubt we'll see plenty more as the season continues.

In two meets students from City High School have earned 16 first place finishes:

Jacinda Bowman, Poetry: GR Christian,
Sara Oliai, Impromptu: GR Christian, Portage Northern
Robby Saldaña, Oratory: GR Christian (2x)
Wilson/Quinn, Duo: Portage Northern (4x)
Jekyll & Hyde, Multiple: Portage Northern (3x)
Michael Schafer, Extemp: Portage Northern (3x)
Colin Tokarek, Informative: Portage Northern

Peak Ahead to WOHO

On March 17 we travel over to West Ottawa HS for our third invitational of the season.

More data will follow but right now, here's who we have competing (* first time):

• Broadcast -- Nathan Ritsema, Andrew Hopewell
• Extemp -- Michael Schafer, Reggie Pell, Christina Le (dual enroll)
  
• Impromptu -- Christian Le (dual enroll), Sara Oliai
• Informative -- Riet Groenleer, Jesse Holwerda
• Oratory -- Robby Saldaña, Casandra Caceres
• Sales 9/10 -- Esther Creswell*, Sharon Hay*, Rebecca Hansen*
• Dramatic Interp -- Alisa Stone, Brandy Andresen
• Dramatic Interp 9/10-- Celeste Kessler
• Duo -- Reames/Kleinschmidt, Gilles/VandenBerg
• Poetry -- Jacinda Bowman, Gerald Polanco
• Prose -- Zoe Ashmead, Brandon Newton, Danielle Barber*
• Storytelling -- Julia Stuart, Emily Witte, Lily Russell*
• Multiple -- Jekyll & Hyde

Off to Portage

This Saturday is our second meet of the Invitational season: Portage Northern.
Like other years, this will be big: there are 22 schools registered! Generally the rounds tend to be large with 6 or so per round. This makes for a long round. Be ready with some bottled water and snacks to keep you going through the first three rounds.

Speaking of Food
There will be some breakfast food available when you arrive. Lunch is offered in the Cafeteria after the third round. The food is a mixture of items (pizza, yogurt, fruit, etc.), all reasonably priced. After the Invitational we will stop for a bite and review our scores. At Portage Northern, this usually has meant going to Fazolis.

Our Schedule
6:30 a.m. -- Arrive at City
7:00 a.m. -- Leave City
8:00 a.m. -- Arrive at Portage Northern
8:30 a.m. -- General Meeting
8:55 a.m. -- Round I begins
5:30 p.m. -- Awards
6:30 p.m. -- Stop for Dinner (Fazoli's or something). Review scorees
7:30 p.m. -- Leave Portage/Kalamazoo
8:30 p.m. -- Arrive at City. Still in time for the auction!


Who's Going?
Here is who we have going (* first time):

• Broadcast -- Nathan Ritsema
• Extemp -- Michael Schafer,Yefei Jin
• Impromptu -- Sara Oliai, Christina Le
• Informative -- Colin Tokarek, Riet Groenleer
• Oratory -- Casandra Caceres
• Poetry -- Jessica Miller
• Prose -- Zoe Ashmead
• D. I.-- Alisa Stone
• D.I. 9/10 -- Celeste Kessler
• Storytelling -- Julia Stuart, Katie Barber *, Emily Witte *
• Duo -- Reames / Kleinschmidt, Wilson / Quinn
• Multiple -- Jekyll & Hyde

First Up: Christian High

Forensics season starts for Grand Rapids City High this Saturday, March 3.

It's an all day affair, with three preliminary rounds then semi-finals, and finals. We ask that all performers stay the day. You get the chance to see and learn from other pieces.


Here's the basic schedule:

• 8:00 -- Arrive at Christian High (map) Meet in the theatre lobby on Plymouth.
• 8:30 -- General meeting in the auditorium
• 8:55 -- Round 1
• 10:30 -- Round 2 (time is proximate)
• 12:00 -- Round 3 (time is proximate)
• 12:30 -- 1:30 lunch (roughly)
• 5:30 -- Awards in Auditorium

Parents! if you are coming and would like to see your student perform, or just poke in on performances, contact Mr H, or come to Christian High and go to the Tab Room (it's on the second floor, by the teacher's lounge).

Who's Going?

• Broadcast: Andrew Hopewell, Nathan Ritsema
• Impromptu: Sara Oliai, Christina Le
• Informative: Riet Groenleer, Jesse Holwerda
• Oratory: Robby Saldaña
• Sales 9/10: Gerald Polanco
• Duo: Reames/Kleinschmidt, Gilles/Vandenberg
• Multiple: Jekyll & Hyde
• Poetry: Jessica Miller, Jacinda Bowman
• Prose: Zoe Ashmead, Audrey Harrington, Brandon Newton
• Storytelling: Julia Stuart
• DI 9/10: Celeste Kessler, Leanna Morris