Towards the end of the school year debate starts to go into regional,
and then state competition. I was really excited about going to
compete at state because I had done so well all year long in debate
ever since I figured out how to do it. I had won first or second at
most of the tournaments so I thought I had more than a fighters
chance to go on and make some noise at the next level. There was one
little problem though, my coach made a mistake and the three of us on
the team that would do well going forward all had to pay the price.
At regional competition which would qualify us for state and national
tournaments the three of us that had gone were all doing quite well.
I had not lost a debate going into the round of the last eight. My
friend grant was in the dramatic and humorous interpretation finals
and the third kid was in two finals as well we were at the break they
have between regular competition and the finals all feeling good and
ready to conquer when our coach, visibly shaken, and the judge he had
brought to represent our school came over to the corner of the
hallway we were waiting in and told us they had some bad news. Every
school was required to supply a judge, who had to be a high school
graduate, in order to compete. We were short a judge with very little
time to go so my debate coach enlisted a senior, mature beyond her
years, to fill in. That was fine until one of the other debate
coaches discovered that we had brought an illegal judge and she
demanded that our team be disqualified and not allowed to compete in
the finals. My coach had spent almost an hour arguing that we should
not be punished because he made a mistake but they wouldn't let us go
on and compete. We were then disqualified from that tournament and
therefore the state and national tournaments as well. I was crushed
and felt like crying and hating anyone I could blame. My coach and
the defective judge looked so distraught that I couldn't bring myself
to muster some rage and I just resigned myself to that fate. Another
kid started crying so he took over that job and we all sat around
wallowing in self pity and hating that other debate coach for being
such a stickler for the rules. Our too young judge was a good friend
of mine and she gave me a hug and apologized and I couldn't hate her
or my coach they had made the effort to help us out and made a
mistake they thought would be no big deal. And it shouldn't have
been.
