If you haven't heard yet, Roosevelt qualified TEN students to Nationals in Dallas this June. Several records were broken. It was the best RHS qualifier since 1983 and perhaps ever. Also it appears Roosevelt has qualified more students to nationals since 2005 than the total in the history of the program prior to that!
The ten are: Catherine Chiodo in IX; Nathan Leys in IX; Katy Roat in DX; Mike Flannery and Sam Roeder in PF; Kayleigh Courard Hauri and Sarah Larson in PF; Aida Ver Plog in OO; Tess Yocom in DI and Luke Theuma in HI.
A number of Roosevelt students were close--some very close like Taylor Yocom debating the last round of the tournament at 11:45 Saturday night losing her bid on a 2-1 verdict. At that point an exhausted LD panel, Valley and the two of us from Roosevelt left Okoboji to close another wild qualifier. The bus with everyone else left at 10 and returned to Des Moines at 2am. Taylor and I arrived with Valley at 2pm Sunday. Both of us went to bed upon arrival!
To those who didn't qualify or didn't make the trip: Watching this team attempt to qualify WAS A COACHES DREAM. To have so many talented and well prepared students make it through the harrowing experiences of a qualifier was a thrill for us.
We have FIVE coaches at Okoboji: Nate Fredericks, Victor Cedeno, Sam Fairfield and Billy Strong. What an amazing job from each of them allowing me to serve as a Qualifier tab person.
The shocking or not so shocking part of this qualifier is that it cost the program a ton of money to travel to far NW Iowa for a qualifier that produced these results:
Roosevelt 8 slots, Dowling 7 slots, Ankeny 4 slots and Valley 2 slots. No one from any other school made it. We drove all that way to absolutly destroy NW Iowa debate in their backyard. NEVER has that happened in modern history.
We still have much to focus on: the All Iowa Finals are soon--Mar 3-5 in Iowa City and Novice Nationals folow that in Iowa City and Congress Quals follow soon as well!
