One of our jobs each year as coaches is to teach parents and students about traveling. Its a lot of little things the novices each season need to learn...here are something we need to clean up:
1). Closing quietly hotel doors not letting them slam. Other people are sleeping in the hotel--even during daylight hours. For example, the Day's Inn was also hosting Union Pacific railroad workers working 24 hrs a day on a major project east of Marshalltown. Crews were sleeping when we arrived!
2). Staying for awards. A number of our novices again left early including one who was not there to be recognized at awards. When we travel, we don't just call a parent for a ride, make them drive 45 miles to Marshalltown and take off. You MUST contact a coach, ask and we MUST know you have left the property. This is spelled our in our handbook and MUST be followed.
If something were to happen and we didn't know where you were, your coaches face huge liability issues let alone very displeased parents and school administrators. Please do not put us in that position. Our job is not easy and mistakes happen--be patient with us--your saftey is our most important concern. Coach Sam Friday night correctly escorted 4 RHS girls from Applebees to Perkins and stayed with them until I arrived. There is no rest for coaches on travel trips so your cooperation and patience is appreciated.
If there are major rules violations, we have little choice to remove the risk from travel trips until we are convinced the issue is resolved. Bettendorf had to call a parent Sat afternoon over a fire violation in the Marshalltown High School. Throwing lit matches at fellow team members in the cafeteria is simple not acceptable behaviour. MHS rules involving fire issues require parental notification. Coach Rankin was not a happy man. Gratefully, our travel students are far more trustworthy than that example.
Also awards are fun and interesting. We cheer for everyone else as they cheer for us.
Also, we do not want every parent driving every trip. We try to rotate judging and driving burdens so parents aren't doing this each weekend. It is a long, hard season on parents and we need their help on fundraisers, our tournaments and judging. Burning parents out on debate trips is not a goal of the team!
If homework is an issue, bring some with you just in case you have time. Hang out with friends. Take in out rounds (a number of you did in Marshalltown and I even heard one student comment they learned something new in a debate event).
And yes, there will be tournaments you won't return home until after midnight on a Saturday.
Bring your homework with you! Travel is a reward, and fun but also carries a higher level of responsibilities. You wouldn't be on a travel squad if we didn't feel we could trust you.
3). Check your hotel room carefully before you leave. Coaches don't have time the next day to spend an hour trying to retrive something you left behind IF it wasn't stolen by a maid when your room was cleaned.
4). Coaches in tab rooms are privy to information that other coaches do not get. Therefore, if we share information that isn't in the public domain for other coaches, be smart and don't blab it all over! By working our tails off in tab rooms, we gain a wealth of information we can use not only in that tournament but in others.
Also believe it or not, tab rooms are long, hard days with a lot of pressure. We all have our responsibilities in running the tournament, sectioning rounds, matching judges and keeping a tournament on or ahead of time. Marshalltown was over at 6:05pm--a Fall Conference record!
Tab room responsibilities represent a high level of trust vested in us by other coaches. Nate and I will be running the tab room at Lincoln, Roosevelt and the State Finals in Iowa City. Most coaches are never asked to tab.
Just some things to think about for our next trip--overall, everyone traveled well--better
than most every other school! Coach Harry
