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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Top Talk Mead Debater Relays Stress, Excitement Of National Tournament

Katherine Schiffner Mead

It was a dark and stormy night, and that was just in the debate room.

As the hours ticked away toward the time that debate students from Mead High were to leave for the Berkeley Invitational Tournament, the frustration was continuing to mount.

Frantic shouts of “I need copies of the Russian Nationalism updates!” and “I can’t believe we’re leaving tomorrow!” came from tired debaters throughout the day. The Berkeley tournament took place over President’s Day weekend, involving 130 debate teams from around the country - second only to Nationals in size.

Needless to say, a lot of time went into preparing for this tournament.

“We must have put in 40 hours this week alone getting ready - and that’s just my partner and I,” said Mead senior Joe Cutler.

Tension grew as the day wound down. After a difficult practice, debaters were about to curl up into fetal positions on the floor when junior Martha Wilson delivered good luck notes to the 17 Mead debaters leaving the next day. Those kind of special touches really helped everyone keep going.

Berkeley is one of the most important tournaments of the year and we all wanted to do well. Penny Johnson, the Mead debate coach, echoed all of our sentiments when she sighed, “I just wish we were on the plane.”

The stress really started to show the next day at the airport. All the debate evidence for Cross-Examination debates, those that deal with policy issues, were kept in plastic boxes that needed to be taped shut to be transported. It was a pretty comical scene as we all scurried for tape and scissors. It was an ordeal to get us on the plane, let alone off of it and settled into the hotel.

After we tossed our luggage down, we set off for some relaxation in San Francisco. But some members had different ideas of relaxation - Joe Cutler and John Osebold must have walked us up every single hill in the city on our way to a tower they wanted to visit. After a long day of hiking, we finally got where we were going - and it was worth it. Coit Tower looks out over the whole city and the view is beautiful.

The next day we went to Golden Gate Park and up to Haight-Ashbury. We had a lot of fun, but the tournament never stopped weighing on our minds.

That night the Mead team had a goal-setting session. We talked about all the things we hoped to accomplish while we were there. Setting aside that time did a lot to pull our team together. It was really nice to be able to lean on other people instead of fight with them. When people get really stressed out they usually start getting on each other’s nerves. That happened some, but we also stuck together and supported each other.

Aaaaahhhh! Finally it was tournament day. I was really worried because this was national competition. I knew this tournament was going to be difficult. The thing that really surprised me was that there were a good number of Washington state debate teams there, including Ferris and Gonzaga Prep. The people we normally debate from all across the state, like Oak Harbor High School and Auburn High School, were there, too. Our first debate round was not that tough and after that I relaxed a little bit.

In addition to traditional debate forms, we also competed in individual events: Dramatic Interpretation, Impromptu, Humorous Interpretation, Expository, Extemporaneous and Oratory.

And things were different here. After only having a five-minute preparation time for Extemporaneous (an event that usually gave 30 minutes for preparation), I was amazed to discover I could still make it through a seven-minute speech. I figured I could handle anything this tournament decided to throw at me.

On day two we found out who had made it to quarterfinals in the individual events and who made it to finals in Cross-Examination and Lincoln-Douglas debate (which focuses on value issues).

We anxiously awaited the postings. I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t make it but was really excited for the people who did.

The tournament was over for everyone except the semi-finalists and the debaters who made it to triple octafinals. When we got back to the hotel we were mostly all excited for the dance they usually have at the tournament. Mrs. Johnston made an unsuccessful effort to herd the people who had to debate the next day into bed but as it turned out the dance didn’t last very long anyway. We were only there for about 10 minutes when a girl had a seizure and they had to clear the dance floor and send everyone back to their rooms.

On the final day, only the people who had to compete had to dress up; I found it very relaxing to finally be in a pair of jeans. We went to support the people who had to compete by watching their rounds. Senior Jill Wallach took 17th overall in Lincoln-Douglas. John Voight and Joe Cutler took ninth place in Cross-Examination Debate in a disappointing loss to Oak Harbor, a team they had debated - and beat - during finals in Washington.

After the first debate rounds had taken place, they posted semi-finals. Joe Cutler made it to semi-finals in Extemporaneous, Sarah Westergren in Expository and Shawn Hummell in Humorous Interpretation. John Voight from Mead made it into final rounds in Expository, and Sarah Stucky from Gonzaga Prep made it to final rounds in Extemporaneous. After final rounds we all anxiously awaited the awards ceremony.

After complaining the night before about how badly she had spoken at this tournament, Jill got quite a big surprise when it was announced she had taken the first-place speaker award in Lincoln-Douglas debate, given to the person who accumulates the most points for their speaking style. The whole room gave her a standing ovation.

John Voight ended up with a fourth-place award in the speaker award, third place for Expository and second place in the Triathlon, or Iron Man Competition, which is scoring the most points in three events at a tournament. Sarah Stucky brought back a fourth place in Extemporaneous.

To top it off, our team found out that Mead had won third place in overall accumulated points at the tournament, which was a very big deal at a tournament that big. Our team jumped, screamed and hugged each other.

By that point we were all exhausted. The next morning we pulled ourselves out of bed to get ready to head back to Spokane. As a senior I knew I was never coming back to compete here again, so that day was a little sad, too. I missed Berkeley before I had even left.

Once we got home, I didn’t want to leave the people I’d spent the last six days with. My first impulse for the next few days when the alarm went off was to tell Jill to get in the shower. Then I remembered all the homework I’d still had to make up - and the fact that we would have another tournament two weeks later.