Proud

The Creighton Double-Up went went well for Truman. I've got a soft spot for that Tournament. First, Marty runs it. He's a great coach and I really respect him. If I couldn't have been on Truman's team I would have been on his. Next, all the awards are from Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade organization. And Finally, I got the second speaker award my at that tournament, that was the only nationally significant tourney that I kicked butt at.
I wasn't able to attend the tourney this year, and I would have liked to, I have two good friends in Omaha and another in Kearney I could have visited on the way there. Also, the mid-west's finest speaker are there, so high quality debate. That tournament is forever sealed in my brain. Three years in a row I did five events and debated. The double up signifies two tourneys in one weekend. I remember the absolute state of exhaustion that I would be on Sunday night for the drive home. I was so tired I couldn't see straight. It was the kinda of tired that feels so good. I'd always have a good trophy haul at that tournament.
With in the next year or two, there is the possibility of me creating my own debate team at the new high school. The benefits: I know what I'm getting into, I know more theory than most highschool coaches, and I could totally focus on the pedagogical values as well as the competitive values of the event. The Down falls: no weekends, STL does "Puff" debate (a style of debate that I'm not used to and supposedly has less educational value) and the chance that my competitiveness will leak out and manifest itself on the kids.
But anyway, it seems that the new crop of freshman are doing well. This makes me happy. May they grow. Debate may have changed me educationally, but it changed me more psychologically and socially. Because of debate, I can actually hold my liqueur to some extent. I know how to smoke a cigar. Because of mistakes made with teammates, I know I'm not as good a person as I thought I was and that I'm way to judgmental for my own good. (Valuable Self knowledge)
Cheers to the freshman, may they get out of it as much as I did!