If we didn't know we had the capacity to win a State team championship--we do now. With only 13 students and a number of key team members not competing, Roosevelt finished 4th and it was any one's tournament up until we lost the final round of Public Forum. Had we caught any breaks in PF in out rounds--there is a good possibility we would have won sweeps. But we didn't get the breaks--the closeouts killed us.
Championship: Indianola by one pt over Ankeny
3rd: Iowa City West
4th: Roosevelt
5th: Okoboji
I know Kayleigh and Rachael probably don't want to watch the replay of the championship round on Mediacom when it airs--they kind of lost it at the end of the debate. However, we had two sophomores become State Runner Ups in Public Forum which is pretty incredible! There have been those who thought these two young ladies have just been lucky this season--I think we can put those thoughts to rest now.
What I see in these two girls is something pretty special: communication,
toughness, teamwork and most of all: desire. They have things to work on like everyone else on the team.
But when you watch the Mediacom tape of the final round I want you to focus on where they let themselves down in this round. Then I think you will understand why I preach some of the things I do in Public Forum. They are to be commended for a job well done even though they were outclassed by two Indianola seniors in front of the camera. Kayleigh and Rachael have the ability to become something special by the time they are seniors if they keep working at it.
We cannot look past the performances of Harrison, Nick, Sarah and Sam in Public Forum either. They get closed out by the girls and never had a chance to win it. There is an arguement that perhaps coaches should have sent someone older to the championship round--we choose to follow our team rules on closeouts. While we didn't win it this past weekend, I also know the time will come when our decision will pay off.
I was thrilled with everyone's effort in PF--it was a good show and a message sent for National Qualifiers.
We garnered more LD sweep points that in past years thanks to Taylor and Samantha. They both lost in Octo finals with very difficult draws vs. a hot Ankeny LD squad. But they impressed a lot of West Iowa coaches and no doubt that ups the ante for a lot of squads in LD qualifiers as well. Some poor decisions from judges impacted the LD field. I was especially proud of Taylor who made an opponent resign the bubble round for her in the AR. He just quit in front of Greg Stevens of Okoboji who was the judge. Greg told me later that while he would have lost it with a student of his quiting in round because you never know what will happen--Taylor systematically destroyed his case--leaving him no place to argue. I later heard she put up a great fight in her Octo round vs. Ankeny. So our LD fortunes are improving bit by bit.
Our Congress kids did very well. For whatever reason, no one wants to do Student Congress in our program. But someone has to or we cannot win a State title. Kati was 6th and Tess 7th for Top 10 sweeps points to the team. Rob picked up a sweep pt with his award in House B finals. I couldn't be more proud of Tess and Kati for their efforts--we needed a couple of top 10 finishes.
A job well done.
All Iowa Finals can be won by us--if we want it. I told the kids at dinner Saturday night that what we need to find now is for everyone to win just one more round. Its called determination and we need just a little more of it. Every round matters regardless of the tournament. Sometime we are just a little to complacent with making out rounds!
