Weeeee are the CHAMPions, my frieeeend...
Most of our goals were based on “do better than last year.” Place higher at Gonzaga. Place higher at Foley. Have more regional champions. Qualify more for Nationals. We met all of them. That’s what kind of people these students are. They worked harder, practiced more, and made it happen.
Then it was time for State. I was scared to set goals for State. Traveling west of the mountains is unpredictable. There is a bias, and some things are done a little differently over there. Still, based on our successes this year, I was fairly confident that we could have more finalists than last year. In fact, this might just be the year that we could finally place in the team standings. If we could just crack the top five!
When 3A finals posted, I was nervous. There were only two finalists from east of the mountains. It didn’t bode well. But then…we had nine finalists. Nine. I had to rush off and judge a final round, so I asked Sara to check for me and see how many finalists other schools had, to see if my goal of a team trophy might happen. We had talked about how we could even crack top three in some events, and you need those high placings to make it on team points.
As I was judging, she texted me a smiley face. That’s it. She told me later it was so I wouldn’t squeal while judging. There was only one team with more finalists—perennial winner Thomas Jefferson, with 10. No one else had more than four. I began to visualize a slightly taller trophy. We were almost certain to make top 3.
The hour after the final round feels more like three hours.
Finally, it was time for awards. My motto is hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high. After all, the west side bias had bitten us before, and in the records we can find on the WIAA website, going back to 2000, an east side school only occasionally places and hasn’t won.
Awards came, and it went better than we hoped:
Trevor Schmitt 7th place impromptu
Malene Garcia 6th place expository
Audra Totten 5th place expository
Monica Winn 5th place interpretive reading
Monica Winn 4th place dramatic interpretation
Ford Powers and Caleb Hernandez 3rd place dual Interpretation
Isaiah Moore STATE CHAMPION interpretive reading
Baylee Easterday STATE CHAMPION impromptu speaking
Baylee Easterday STATE CHAMPION extemporaneous speaking
Let’s recap: It was Caleb and Ford’s third trip of three outings to finals. Isaiah and Monica both repeated as IR finalists. Baylee and Monica were double finalists. And Baylee achieved the rare feat of being a state champion in both speech events.
It was all going to come down to which school had more students place higher. Fifth place…not us. Fourth place…not us. Third place…not us. We were pretty confident and quite excited that we’d be bringing home a second place trophy. It was going to be a great moment for all of the east side of Washington. But we weren’t second either.
We are the 4A WIAA Speech Individual Events CHAMPIONS. By two precious points.
If it was ever going to happen, this was the perfect year, the perfect storm, and these kids made it happen. To say that I’m proud would be a vast understatement.
Our humble thanks to Mr. Wallwork, for making the trek to Tacoma and attending some rounds with the kids before heading back that evening. It meant a lot to them, and there’s a reason that they nominated him—and he won—Inland Empire NSDA Principal of the Year.
Thank you to Phil Koestner, who texted me right as they announced us as the 4A champions. My hands were shaking so badly, I’m sorry you had to try to decipher my text.
Thank you to all of you, for supporting these amazing young people and letting them know that you are happy for their successes.
We still have five students competing in State Debate this coming weekend. We also have a whole lot of fundraising to do for nationals. It ain’t over, as they say, until it’s over, and until then, what a magnificent year it is!
Comments
Post a Comment