"You did it, and you also won top speaker!" Qian told her, with Sadie holding the top speaker's gavel in one hand and the trophy.
"A week from now I will need to focus on my own studies as well as on tutoring the football team. And not just you" Sadie then tells Qian.
"You're intensely smart, and you know it"
"Thank you"
I am forced to acknowledge I am a smart girl. People playing at the NSDA Nationals and/or at the HSNCT are smart, too, Sadie muses, upon hearing the debate team's gameplan for the month.
"Chantal, and the public forum team, you are released from any further practices from LHSSL-State until the end of the HSNCT. Everyone else, we'll decide after LHSSL-State whether you should enter NSDA Last Chance in early May. But this means no ToC for you, Chantal" the debate coach announces the roadmap for the rest of the season.
"On what basis will the decision be made to enter NSDA Last Chance?" Rebecca asks, still feeling the sting from this semifinal defeat against Bâton-Rouge KH.
"It depends on the relative performance between both state championships. But we will need to beg money at church, from admins, and even host our own dinner for Nats. Speaking of the fundraiser dinner, it will be held the Sunday after Last Chance" the debate coach decides.
Florence gave up on the NSDA Last Chance and therefore the Nationals because of the HSNCT, but now she's the Rouge et Or star player in English-language debates, the debate coach muses upon hearing about how the policy team is interested in NSDA Last Chance, but no one else was.
Usually, players entering NSDA Last Chance are players who were either left out of the regular district qualifiers because their schools or districts didn't have enough room for everyone or players who didn't quite qualify normally but still performed decently.
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Meanwhile, somewhere in Michigan, DCC's debate team holds the same discussion about entering NSDA Last Chance on the way back to Novi, knowing that even their LD star player didn't make it (notwithstanding that Michigan even had LD at NSDA District Qualifiers for the first time in years), let alone their public forum pairing.
"I'm not sure about how I feel about asking the head coach to let us enter the NSDA Last Chance" Brock, DCC's star LD player, muses.
"As for us, we'll be torn to shreds at Nationals even if we somehow made it to octos at Last Chance. While this season was an improvement over the last one, where we scrambled to get Lance to play at Isidore Newman, and later to get a second speaker to form another pair so that Lance could finish the debate season..." Francis comments.
"We got a pretty good idea of how the Nationals will play out based on us playing a practice game against the Venomous Agendas, who are attending" David retorts.
"I get it, last year was terrible for all of us, even in LD" Brock then turns to their coach. "Can we please enter the NSDA Last Chance Qualifier, to be held online?"
"You will have to get the legwork done on your own" the coach then warns the DCC players.
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At LHSSL-State, the Venomous Agendas return home with three state titles in tow: extemp, policy and public forum. A bittersweet vengeance for Rebecca and her pair, who look to Last Chance to finish what they started.
Fast-forward to the opening day of NSDA Last Chance, with only policy entered and Florence being their designated judge. Everyone else not already qualified was sidelined. Sadie's mother feeds her with a few more factoids about cross-play at the HSNCT and the TOC/NSDA Nationals, in a break from AP studying.
YOU ARE READING
A Tale of Two Academic Teams
Novela JuvenilSadie, an ambitious high school student, is the first student on the debate team to use its reserved quiz bowl spot. Little does she know that the pressure built up over the years could explode at any time, while struggling to evade the shadow of he...
