A Tale of Two Academic Teams

Chapter 13: NSDA District Qualifiers

Already the Venomous Agendas' House and Senate players are no longer in NSDA Nationals contention, the debate coaches take all the non-Congressional players at the district qualifiers in a bus to Bâton-Rouge, and there are no double entries this year, six entries total. One for international extemp, one each in policy and public forum, two in LD, and finally one in original oratory.

"This year our state can qualify two contestants per category at NSDA Nationals, since the twentieth school started playing last year. Nevertheless, please treat this tournament as if it was a state championship: except for the Congressional players, people here won't see the difference! What people see is winning a state championship makes people advance to the NSDA Nationals" the coach explains to them before the bus leaves the campus.

And I feel like I am bearing the entire weight of the Louisiana quiz bowl-playing world on the debate floor, for the next two weeks, and not just because there are no other quiz bowl players here. We win here and we win next week, and then we'll need to fundraise for the NSDA Nats unless either the EGMO fundraiser money is enough or Jennifer qualifies for the IMO, Sadie reflects on the implications of victory at the district qualifiers. Maybe the humanities and social studies faction would be then willing to pitch in some money for the Nats. But while mathletics is the Venomous Agendas' academic EC cash cow, debate is the most expensive of the three. Not even the cash from coaching DCC XD covers my debating expenses. But I am in kind of a lose-lose situation because defeat this weekend would force me to pare down my collegiate dreams, and I will be booed.

Joe, on the other hand, is reviewing the field for the event. Just... wow. Isidore Newman had a whopping four entries in public forum, Bâton-Rouge and Caddo Magnets have one apiece, Teurlings Catholic has one and they are the last entry, for a total of eight. Their schedule is such that they will play four preliminary rounds, of which 3 will be played on Friday.

Speaking of which, the two Venomous Agendas speech players are struggling to determine who to watch in round 1 of debate after their round 1 ends. They couldn't be everywhere at once, but once they choose a round, which they refer to internally as a game, to watch, they are expected to watch it in its entirety. The judge for round one announces the contestants before the game begins in a classroom that has a limited crowd:

"Welcome to round one of the NSDA Louisiana public forum District Qualifiers. The public forum topic for this tournament is: Resolved: On balance, lowering voting age to sixteen creates more benefits than harms. On the aff side, we have Sadie Naath and Joe Glumack-Layton and on the neg side..."

While everyone keeps their composure during the delivery of their respective opening statements, as per usual, the aff side speaks first. Wait until the first crossfire. This is where emotions tend to run higher. From past experience, games can be won or lost on one's ability to keep emotions in check in a crossfire. Also, next time, we will argue the neg side, Sadie starts thinking, while paying closer attention to the opponent's opening statement and the crossfire, knowing the rebuttal stage will depend on both. The opponent's opening statement seemed to center around one central theme: 16-17-year-olds' lack of maturity and life experiences. Overreliance on one kind of argument can cost you. Even DCC XD could defeat them, at least they have a better variety of arguments, research and a better idea of how to tie them together.

When comparing their own opening statement on the neg... that game would not be a clash of ideas of the variety the tournaments on the national circuit accustomed the team to. And the judgment is passed for this game...

"The winner is... the aff side!" the judge announces to them.

After the feedback is given to both sides, the Venomous Agendas' IX'er, Chantal, briefly wishes to talk about the game. Sadie can't help but look at her teammate's disappointment, after being made to endure ca. 45 minutes of speeches and counter-speeches...

"OK, Quiz Bowl Sadie, this game was not the best game in the world" Chantal comments on Sadie's first game.

"Chantal, I'll be honest, you seem to prioritize the substance of the ideas exchanged in a debate, over the performance of teams. If international extemp doesn't work out for you, maybe you should try public forum debating next season. This, too, requires reading the same sort of sources you currently do. You should watch the public forum semis tomorrow, and ours if we make it" Sadie defends herself.

"I'd be struggling with the strategic aspect of arguing. I know it's more than just slick speeches with substance" 

"Maybe quiz bowl would be more your speed"

"I'd fit the same mold of quiz bowler as you are. It's already bad enough with only you; I know you made it work only because you mostly stick to your debate research for quiz bowl. Not sure the team would even want a clash with us when debate tournaments are held on the same week as quiz bowl ones"

"You're right in that losing two players for a weekend would be a nightmare on the buzzer. As far as I am aware, only one school at the HSNCT has more than one player doing both, St. Croix Prep in Minnesota; our own policy team played at the Columbia Online Invitational against them. That, even though I know St. Croix Prep policy and LD players in quiz bowl are not playing at NSDA Nationals"

And then, at the end of the day, exhausted, the players retreat to the fastness of their hotel rooms. Chantal was less tired than Sadie, since she only gave two 7-minute speeches, as opposed to 3 debates lasting 45 minutes each, requiring large amounts of concentration even when someone doesn't speak. Then Sadie turns to her Teams screen, where DCC XD, at the other side of the country, contacts her before they go to sleep.

"Hi, Quiz Bowl Sadie, how has it been for you?" a DCC player asks her in a tired voice.

"A little tired, but with one round to go, we're undefeated. Do you feel like you can break?" Sadie's voice is a little hoarse as well.

"We went two-one today. We have two more games to play, top two teams go on to nationals, we have five round-robin games to play total. This basically feels like a repeat of the state championship for us. We were in the quarterfinals there" David explains to her.

"For us, on the other hand, it's a dress rehearsal of the state championship"

"I can't believe this game against the neighboring parish could have gone so poorly! They picked up (won) that game because we had a judge that had more tolerance for pretty spreads" Rebecca comments on camera.

"Neighboring parish?" asks a confused Francis, who was never told about the VAs' inter-parish rivalry.

"Please excuse her, she's a policy player for our school" Sadie explains herself. "Southwest Louisiana basically has two non-denominational schools that actually compete in debate tournaments and they are in adjacent counties, or parishes. And here's Chantal, our international extemper" Chantal then waves her hand on camera.

A pretty spread is when a speaker's speech is delivered at a rapid rate, sounds nice but doesn't have much substance. Policy debates are harder to follow for the audience and the judges because of how fast people talk. We went 1-1 for the day, we win tomorrow morning, and we break, so we need to win 3 more games to go to the NSDA Nats, the female policy player muses while she didn't expect to lose that game because of a "pretty spread" in a closing argument. However, the policy team won't have it easy should they win the next two games, er, rounds: Isidore Newman and Caddo Magnet are the favorites to win in that format. The neighboring parish's head-to-head record against us in policy this season is abysmal, one win and it had to be here. Sure they improved but so did we.

"Don't forget about LD! For us at DCC, all our hopes for the NSDA or NCFL Grand Nationals lie in LD" Lance's former teammate tells the girls in the room on camera.

"We might have one player in LD that could break into semis, but whether it's happening is anyone's guess" Daisy, the female Venomous Agenda LD player, comments.

Chantal and Sadie realize they are both in the top 2 positions of their respective events going into the second day, so what fans the humanities and social studies faction could muster, starting with the parents of the players, had good reason to be en route for Bâton-Rouge, hoping to arrive for their leading figures' big games.