In mid-February, on the Monday right after the VAs' run in the Stanford Invitational ends, a new day begins at school, and, along with it, a new morning announcement:
"Hello everyone, today's announcement is twofold: first, the debate team delivered a strong performance at the Stanford Online Invitational, with Stacey Miller earning a ToC bid by virtue of making it to the quarterfinals in LD debate, Tania Hébert also making it to the quarterfinals in original oratory and, finally, Francisco Vargas earning a ToC bid by being vice-champion in international extemp!"
Congress failed to break, I guess, I hope that Rod will qualify for Nats this year. However, this ToC bid just doesn't feel the same because DCC just wasn't playing! Stacey starts crying in her classroom when the morning announcement is made. However, as Stacey is about to burst into tears in class, Marianne then proceeds to the next stage of the announcement, starting with the date. After the date is announced:
"On that Saturday night, we shall have a fair where participants will showcase various cultures and cuisines from around the world in a fundraiser for our future student exchange students! And also raise money for arts!" Marianne then closes the announcement. "I invite you to bring your meals at the fair!"
I know what this means... more poutine from me, but a much wider array of meals, cooked by the would-be host families, as well as parents of VAs; it's more than just school personnel, Flo starts perusing the local groceries' specials to see where to buy what ingredients, or if it could be better to wait until later. More than "pâté chinois", more than smoked meat or "pudding chômeur", poutine will be the emblematic dish I plan on cooking.
Upon arriving at Walmart, this time around, she encounters not another teacher, but one of Stacey's parents, looking for answers to some questions about a change in her behavior, apparently dating as far back as Isidore Newman...
"Coach, my daughter won't shut up about trying to avenge DCC! Normally, she keeps quiet about opponents in debate tournaments at home, and in class. She is in detention for being disruptive in her ramblings" Stacey's father complains to her.
"DCC does one and only one thing in debate tournaments: Lincoln-Douglas. These guys beat Stacey in quarterfinals at Isidore Newman and hence won a ToC bid against her" Flo tries to shed some light on this obsession.
"Is it possible to schedule a practice round during the fundraiser?"
"Let me check with DCC, but it might take a while to get an answer from them"
Flo checks DCC's debate team Web page on her cell phone and she finds out the contact information of their debate coach along with the two-player roster. Which she then checks against Isidore Newman's bracket to see who Stacey lost to. Ideally, I want the player with the ToC berth against her, she starts thinking while writing her email to DCC's coach requesting them for that player to play an online LD round for charity. And, since they will play to outside spectators, at least at VA, they won't have a choice but to play the round traditionally.
"I know my daughter cares a lot about debating performance, but is she doing well in class? I am worried that her grades could slip, blinded by her obsession over defeating DCC" Stacey's dad voices another concern over Stacey's troubles.
"I can only speak for AP French, but this course isn't what worries me about her. She's on track for an A in it. What worries me is her obsession with, like you said, defeating DCC. Maybe she should get an evaluation because I feel like it could make her unable to function if nothing is done" Flo keeps talking.
"Thank you"
The parent then moves away from Flo and she can then buy not only one but three giant bags of fries. Which is the limit per customer for this week's discount.
And then she emails Marianne with a request for a room to hold a practice LD game against DCC during the fundraiser, for one hour, which Flo plans to bill as a rivalry game. However, she feels like the crowd would mostly be friends of current players and family of players, past and present. Because, as much as the debate team might be known to the townsfolk, and the VA community might pride itself in doing what others don't (and, in some cases, can't) do in the region, it takes a certain kind of person to feel like interscholastic debate teams are worth supporting.
At one point, DCC even considered Anna as being a VA in all but name, even when, by that point, she was playing for Kinder of all teams! Steven's words ring in Flo's mind about the most heated years of the DCC rivalry on the debate floor. I must schedule an appointment with Stacey's parents, but after the Congress district qualifier, which is this weekend, and takes place online.
---------------------
But the next day, during the Tuesday special practice session, called primarily to get the Congressional players familiar with the topics of the district qualifier, provided they didn't already make their research and speeches on these topics for previous tournaments.
At the same time, the LD and PF players all get started on preparing for their district qualifier, held in mid-March, doing research and, later, writing their opening statements. Once the special Tuesday practice ends, Flo wishes to talk to Stacey.
"I heard from your dad that you ate a detention yesterday because you were rambling and crying left and right about DCC after the results from Stanford were announced to the student body. I know it has traumatized you for months, but I think that therapy is in order before you can even think about getting revenge on DCC. If you want to enter the ToC Digital Speech and Debate Series, please notify me immediately, and you will need to pay for that tournament out of your own pocket" Flo makes her intentions clear to Stacey, before turning to Francisco. "Same goes for you, Francisco"
"No thanks, coach, I don't really feel the need to compete at the ToC" Francisco answers her, before leaving the practice.
The ToC Digital Speech and Debate Series, especially the last two tournaments, are widely considered the ToC counterpart (and, in a LD context, progressive) to the NSDA Last Chance.
"How much is that tournament? Also, if I enter, will you be able to judge it?" Stacey asks Flo, feeling like that tournament might provide a stepping stone to avenge DCC at Isidore Newman.
"Even if you enter this tournament, even if you subsequently qualify for the ToC or for Nats, there is no guarantee whatsoever that you will actually play DCC again this season, much less at either one!" Flo warns her player. "There's a base fee for any team plus fees for your own entry, and I will judge the required three preliminary rounds, plus any subsequent playoff rounds"
"Then no, I will not be entering that tournament unless I have a guaranteed chance to play them elsewhere this season!" Stacey starts screaming in a high-pitched voice. "If it means I must handle everything with DCC myself to make it happen, so be it!"
"You probably already have DCC's debate team contact information by now, but if you don't..." Flo sighs, feeling like she has no choice but to let Stacey go down the path of obsession for the time being.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Because the alternative would be far worse to her eyes, and therapy, no matter how effective, is slow to act. Yet, for months, Flo is puzzled by why is it that DCC seemed to traumatize Stacey like no other opponent.
With DCC's debate team contact info in hand, Stacey also checks Isidore Newman's bracket against the results of Michigan's NSDA Nats district qualifier, and more specifically in LD. And, of course, the tournament records of the DCC player who beat her at Isidore Newman. That guy who beat me is the reigning Michigan state champion; if I can somehow beat him this season, then I should be in good position to play at Nats, Stacey is left wondering how he stacks up to other potential Louisiana players vying for the state's two LD berths.
"You must realize two things: your dad specifically asked for us to host a debate game against DCC a few weeks from now, albeit online, and I got nightmares of being forced to host a foreign exchange student if I wanted to keep the team alive because of you. But right now, you must prepare arguments, cards, values, criteria and opening statements before you can even think of playing DCC, or at the district qualifier!"
And Stacey realizes that, as she offers to play for the VAs in what Flo told DCC would be a charity game, on top of it being a rivalry game, she needs to return to preparing in earnest, while also remaining mindful of keeping her neuroses under control, as well as doing her homework. In addition, DCC accepted to have their own end of the game be held as a fundraiser for a different charity, as well as having their respective debate coaches judge that game, much like a prelim game at Nats.
Yet their charity game had limited support among the greater Shamrock community since Shamrock boosters preferred sports to more intellectual pursuits.
---------------------
A few weeks later, Florence cooks her bucket full of poutine, and must be cautious about the gravy, so that the cafeteria, which serves as the food hub of the fundraiser put on by the principal, can have access to a wide variety of meals. Poutine, chicken Kyiv, curry (as cooked by a current host family even though the student they host doesn't typically eat curry) and so on.
And the program features a number of activities hosted by various extracurricular teams struggling to get visibility in town, since they didn't want to feel like debate is hogging all the attention of the greater VA community.
But, obsessed with her role in this so-called charity debate game, Flo leaves the bucket of poutine unattended and goes straight to the computer lab the principal earmarked for said game. With Stacey already inside the room and her parents seated in the lab.
Before the game begins, Flo warns Stacey about what awaits her, and the consequences of doing so while playing to a crowd that can somehow fill the computer lab.
"You do realize that, by hosting this game, we're doing DCC a favor since their own season basically ended two weeks before Columbia. They're going to be a little rusty" Flo warns Stacey. "It's going to be tight, but since you played him..." she gets interrupted by the coin toss, which will decide who gets to argue which side of the topic.
"Yes, yes" Stacey then gets into position to play that charity game. "Justice for DCC!" Stacey shouts across the computer lab. "But if that's the price to pay to exact vengeance for what DCC did at Isidore Newman..."
"Justice for DCC!" the spectators in the computer lab all shout, drowning out the comments she made after Stacey shouted Justice for DCC herself.
"Heads, DCC decides which side to argue for, tails, VA will decide" DCC's debate coach then tosses the coin. "Heads!"
DCC's coach then introduces his player, playing on the aff, along with the topic. When Flo's turn comes to introduce the game to the crowd...
"Welcome to this fundraiser game, brought to you by the debate team, held for the benefit of the Venomous Agendas' extracurricular teams! On the neg, we have our very own Stacey Miller!"
Stacey is the most obsessed player I ever coached, Flo muses while she starts listening to the opponent's values and criteria. And then the arguments the DCC player makes in favor of the ethical issue of the 2-month cycle. The crowd remains quiet, both in Novi and in this Jennings computer lab. And neither player has played to crowds that large in their debating lives either. Which, obviously, made it different from any other debate game at tournaments for both, even district qualifiers.
As tempting as it could be for Stacey to field questions from the VAs' audience during her three minutes of cross-examination, she abstains from doing so because she feels the audience's questions may not be topical. She feels like she must ask as many questions as possible given the opponent's answers, as concisely as possible.
However, with only three minutes to cross-examine him, she can't possibly ask all the questions she wants. Nor were the opponent's answers the most concise in the world. Her face starts sweating as soon as the cross-ex ends.
"Prep time!" Stacey calls for it, and takes about ninety seconds of her four-minute allowance to prepare what she's running for her first rebuttal speech. Or more specifically, the second half of the seven minutes she's allotted for that.
Now, I have a better idea of what it's really like for my daughter in these games, but also of what goes on during these games that could drive her crazy, Stacey's father realizes he encouraged her to play for years without having any real idea of what LD really demands on a player. Very, very fast wits. And she pushes her mind so hard... yet this round was traditional.
Then comes the time for him to cross-examine her, seven minutes later. At this point of the game, neither side seemed to dominate the game, and it could come down to the wire. If the opponent thought he could demolish Stacey at that point, he failed.
And, since the four minutes he has on the affirmative rebuttal to defend himself are the most difficult for players on the aff, it's crucial for him to make every second of prep time he's taking count. That, even though Stacey takes advantage of the prep time her opponent is taking to prepare her final six minutes of speaking time, supported by two and a half minutes of her own.
Meanwhile, this game raises a lot of issues and questions among the audience, but they keep quiet for now, feeling it would be a lack of respect for both debaters, unlike other debates so many listened to on various media, online or otherwise.
I would have loved to discuss the topic with the players, and not simply being listening to them! Flo laments quietly, while weighing each side's arguments. And both players seem to have some nuance in how they approach their side of the issue, which she feels is lacking in a lot of players of a wide range of skill levels. Then again, one is talking about the best LD players of their respective teams... That's a lot to process, she tries to get a better idea of who could persuade her better, and, when that fails, she then resorts to a well-known fallback among LD judges when clashes of ideas in rounds get too tight for comfort: speaker points.
And, as the closing statements end, it seems like both sides applaud their favorites, hoping that their own side would win the round.
"Now that's a much better debate than what I kept seeing everywhere!" one of the attendees comments as to how this round feels like day and night compared to what debates often are presented in media discourse.
"Look, guys, both players who played today made it far into inter-state debate tournaments this season!" Flo points out to the VAs' attendees, whom DCC's can overhear since the camera feed is still active.
"A breath of fresh air!" Stacey's father quips after having seen his daughter in an actual LD round for the first time.
"But also a lot heavier intellectually" Stacey's mom retorts.
My brain is about to fry... Stacey sighs, hoping that the outcome of the round she just played is favorable to her, if only a little bit. Really, the best she could hope for is exactly that: a Pyrrhic win. And the same in reverse. She is no longer in position to let her mind wander about what could have constituted optimal revenge conditions to her.
And how unrealistic it would have been to achieve them, so she might be OK with potentially avenging DCC in some exhibition game. Especially when facing DCC in a high-stakes game at a tournament might not necessarily happen.
In the meantime, Flo feels like this game could be decided by as little as half a speaker point. To both coaches, neither player was perfect, but what could be improved upon would then appear on the judgments both players will receive by email. When Stacey opens her email inbox...
"I win..." Stacey sighs, looking at the total speaker points both players are awarded, winning by a fraction of a point. "DCC has been avenged! And yet... I don't know how I feel anymore" her relief soon turns into confusion, and she feels the need to clear her headspace.
"The only reason why I agreed with your father's request was that the game provided benefits to you outside of any emotional issues you had. And we were also able to raise about two hundred dollars. Rest assured that your opponent also gave his all" Flo explains to her.
"What benefits?"
"So you would have a better feel for what to watch out for in rounds on this topic. District qualifier is next week, and you represent our best shot at us getting a second Nats berth..."
"Over Francisco or Tania? I'm happy for Rod"
"Francisco and Tania both have luck factors. Topic draw for Francisco, judge luck for Tania. District qualifier has a traditional judge pool, and Last Chance if applicable"