There are some commonalities this year between the wrestling and debate programs. First of all, congratulations to Coach Groth's teams on their 3rd place finish last night at the State tournament. It is the highest ever finish for a DMPS school in wrestling at state.
Wrestling started the year ranked highly, but in January hit some rough spots. They lost some matches, suffered from injuries and illnesses, watched their ranking slip to 7th and had to fight tooth and nail to win the conference vs. North-Hoover's team. But those kids bounced back in great shape and finished well.
We've had a bit of bad luck all season, our younger students have taken some difficult losses, a wave of illness hit the week of National Qualifiers,
we lost some very key rounds at Nat Quals, and we've watched Valley pull away from everyone in ratings, etc.
Like wrestling, we need to find it and I know we will. All Iowa Finals are just a few weeks away. We took it easy last week letting students get caught up in school work and recover from their illnesses.
We need to push ourselves hard the next couple of weeks. Case revisions,
answers to things we didn't know at Nat Quals, speaking practice, etc. I think this team can measure up in Iowa City...we need to be pushing for Top 5 finishes in both speech and debate. It is within us to win a debate team championship!
