This is a note to everyone who did something to help our team both compete and host part of the Dowling Paradigm Tournament this weekend. You help made it possible for 12 of our students to compete and for us to operate the Roosevelt site.
This would not have happened without your wonderful support.
I caught the flu right after Thanksgiving and Franky was not well at the Mason tournament two weekends ago. My schedule did not allow for time off nor was I able to catch up on sleep. Needless to say, I essentially crawled away from the Marriott Hotel in West Des Moines this Sunday afternoon as the final rounds in policy were starting. It has been a difficult three days. But it has been a rewarding three days as well.
I overheard a conversation between a couple of new parents about why we co-host the Dowlng tournament. That is a complicated answer but here are some thoughts:
1). Working together, we can accomplish far more as a community than working against each other. By maintaining two TOC bid tournaments in the metro--we save on travel costs!
2). We earn the concession profits and need the profits
3). Each year we have national level coaches in our building who get exposed to Roosevelt speech and debate. They see our home environment (so different than most of theirs) and appreciate better the accomplishments of our program. Most "city" schools don't compete successfully in the activity.
4). It adds a national level prestige to our program which pays back when we attend circuit events elsewhere.
5). It helps our students in the activity and in college opportunities if they choose to compete in college.
And the list goes on. This weekend:
We had the head of the National Debate Coaches Association in our building this weekend. She loves Roosevelt, our parents, our program and our food. We also had five college coaches in our building this weekend.
So there are a lot of gains for our program and I am grateful that Dowlng allows us to co-host. Thus, despite the work, despite not having our name on the tournament, the gains far outweigh the alternative. This weekend, were earned a nice profit, got free TOC bid tournament entry fees and judging. The alternative would have been to pay about $1100 in fees to Dowling and judges. Needless to say, hosting takes that $1100 loss in entries and judging fees and turned it into a several thousand dollar swing to the positive in our budget.
Sincerely--thank you to every parent, grandparent, student and friend of this program who stepped up to make this happen again!
And I hope you do not catch this flu bug making the rounds!
