if you dont know what that is, i assume no...

I just started this year, and its pretty fun... lol bad part is that we're in the toughest league in the state, but at least that gets us prepped for state competition, my debating role models are these two seniors at our school, they're second in our entire state ^^

Too bad I suck right now though, lol anyways, has anyone dont debate in competition before? or are part of the NFL (National Forensic League, not football...)

What's your state and school?

I'm an LDer. But I'm better at Student Congress (PA State Champion) than LD.

I a Lincoln-Douglas debater as well...pft...*Glares at Minda* I'm not good at it...haha you know that...

Hey read my signature .

Hah. Hah. *Slaps knee* That was hilarious, Minda.

Dang... that's very nice... I'm from Santa Clara County in California, I mainly do impromptu speaking and student congress (though i pretty much suck at both) and i just participated at a policy tourney at Lynbrook high school (they have the biggest team in the entire country, 300 ppl! lol but our debaters swept them out at state quals )

Sadly next year we are going to suck cuz our good debaters are leaving, and I might dabble into LD, I dont know.. cuz LD I could start novice again and if i did policy next year i'd have to be Varsity and that wouldnt be good, plus the fact that I cant work with the partner I was with

And yes, i'm rambling again, so I'll shut up now

It's sad; I actually beat Minda to this, but our LD is dying, too. There's not many freshmen or sophmores participating. We have this thing called the Freshman/Sophmore tournament, which, stating the obvious, is where only freshmen and sophmores compete. Unfortunately, there were only three people that signed up (myself included), and they had to cancel.

that sucks... we have a realli good policy team (ours did realli well in state, placing in double-octofinals and up to 2nd place), alright LDers, and realli nice IEers, but sadly most are leaving... oh, just wondering, who coaches your teams? our teams are coached by our AP 11 English teacher (who just got inducted into the NFL HALL OF FAME this year), another coach, and former students (that now go to USC and Stanford), so yeah... a lot of pressure on us, bleh

My school's coach doesn't teach...I can't recall how long she's been a coach, but heh...trust me...a long time.

By the way, congratulations on your coach.

My school (Pittsburgh Central Catholic) is dying too....

In 1999 and 2000 we had Brendan Bowes, who won States in LD... Twice.

In 2000, FOUR Central debaters closed out the last four spots at National Quals.

2001 and 2002 was the reign of MIke Nicholas, who placed 14th nationally in Cognress and 10th nationally in debate.

But now it's down to me, and I'm just good at Congress... after next year we're going to have nobody.

no debatting expiernce here. alot of persuasion/debate papers in english this year though. good stuff. i like to spend 3 hours on a paper just so it can be skimmed by a teacher half-mindedly reading it. good times.

Wow... that's realli realli good... I hope our debaters do well.. see the problem here, like my friend said, is that we have a lot of talent, but no commitment.. our ppl are realli good, i mean we do realli well in the toughest league in the state, but hardly anyone comes to practices, we're supposed to have a 70 person team or so, but besides the first meeting, i think 40 showed up at most at one time for the rest of the year.. *sigh* then next year, we lose one coach, the year after that, we may lose another one.. and our best debater that'll be here next year is trying to betray us and transfer to a rival school X.x

well next year we will have TWO (count 'em... 1... 2...) active members of our team, so 40 doesn't seem all that bad...

Luckily I have alot of lackeys and minions to make up for my school's relative weakness, allowing me to still dominate Student Congress elections.

eh.. but see.. 40, most onli go for the required 2 tourneys to get the 50 points EC offered by the coach, then they pretty much drop out.. we onli have probably 2 actually dedicated policy teams... no LDers, our congress ppl do realli well in league tourneys even though they onli look at the topic on the drive to the competition (and i actually prepare ahead of time and i do far worse, but that's cuz i just suck x.x), Duo is probably our most popular event.. and impromptu cuz you dont need to prepare.. we had to draft parli ppl into doing extemp



haha so you mainly focus on student congress? we dont even have practices, our coach just says "you, you, and you, you're going to the congress competition" and they still get like 1st place in their house.. i envy those ppl

No I mainly focus on Lincoln-Douglas, I'm just better at Student Congress.

I've won Outstanding Speaker at every student congress i've been to this year (including States) except for once where i didn't make the board cause i didn't give enough speeches, and in the prelim round at states I got superior in my house but I ended up winning teh whole tourney so it worked out.

Kathleen ask Jules or whoever your school sent in Senate about my Cuba speech :). The best part is I get to give it again for a bill on Nationals.

Also, I can play the politics pretty well, at least on the District Level.

I also have many memorable lines that people often quote from my speeches:

"And they can still afford new tanks after their old ones' tracks get sticky from running over civilians."

"I envision an America where we can say, 'No Mr. Khrushchev! We will not bury you. That would be a waste of our tax dollars."

"The great philosopher ralph waldo emerson once said, "Mexico will poison us!' As you cvan see, history is more relevant today than ever."

"Fellow Senators, when teh Constitution is finally dead and buried, do we really want its tombstone to say 'We did it for the druggies'"?

All you crazy good ppl with actual speaking skills.. i envy you all! lol

-

Wow.... that's insanely good... see, the things you mentioned, I lack them all -.-

I wish I could write as well as you can, for one, and for another, my speeches are all kinda monotonous >.< I love how you incorporate so many facts and ideas so smoothly... just wondering, what college are you going to next year? most likely a very good one..

I have what's called Senioritis Prematuris. It's when everyone thinks I'm a senior when I'm actually a junior. I see this even applies to people I've never met :).

No but seriously, I'd LIKE to go to U-Penn. Applying early in October.

lol well... considering all of your achievements in congress... dang.. and onli a junior.. that's realli good, almost scarily so..oh and the reason was cuz I swear I read that next year you werent going to have anyone good left, but turns out i skipped the "after" part, lol




Ooh, that's a nice one, I hope you get in ^^

What grade are you in, EmeraldKnight? Haha...Minda breathes debate, which is why he's that good.

Minda's a he? the name's certainly deceiving.. lol i"m a 15 year old sophomore that would like to be able to speak but can't, which is why i type, lol jk


lol its like our policy teams.. they spend sooo much time researching and stuff, heh, the top two teams in the state are from our league, state finals were dominated by our school and this one other school that furnished the team that defeated us..

Just wondering, Minda, if you go to national tourneys, have you ever heard of/met Aaron Blumenthal or Aarash Bordbar (think that's how you spell it), and the two schools are Bellarmine College Prep and Los Gatos High School, any of those ring bells?