I don't believe I have mentioned that in high school I lettered in Forensics. "Like CSI?" you may ask. But no, Forensics as a sport is more in the line of speech giving. My particular area was drama. My good buddy and soul sister Liz and I performed a play with no sets, costumes, or props and actually did quite well. An "A" at state, if I remember correctly. And we really did get a W for our success.
The next step in my public school sports experience was the Scrabble Club in Dayton, Oregon. I am proud to say that at the height of my Scrabble coaching career we came in third in the state tournament. Had a nice layout in the newspaper, too.
Big news. I am a professional coach now. By professional I mean that I actually get paid! Let me rephrase that. I have been led to believe that I will at some point get paid.
The sport? Battle of the Books! I am writing this entry right now because two of my three teams won their district battles and we're going to state! Whoo hoo! I truly in my heart believe that one of my teams has a chance at taking the state title. How cool is that?! Of course, it would be far more exciting if "going to state" meant we actually went anywhere. Lucky me to end up being the coach of the only sport that has their tournaments over the phone!
For those of you unfamiliar with this highly competitive team sport, it involves reading a dozen or so books of varying length, difficulty, and genre, then answering ridiculously detailed questions about them. I am stunned by the brain power of my middle school team. Some question will come up about how many buttons were on the shirt of the guy next to a character at a bus stop and one of my students will say, "That sounds like Alabama Moon by Watt Key." Yesterday I was moved to say, "Tom, how did you know that?" He just smiled. Great kids. Think of us and send clear-headed literary thoughts to the Arctic on February 26th and 27th. If we win I will certainly let you know.
And a very chocolate-filled and Happy Valentine's Day to you all.
This sounds like the perfect team for you to coach! Vivian is on a Battle of the Books team at her school (remember she's a 6th grader now!) but the teachers aren't involved. Librarians used to run it but with budget cuts, it's all parent volunteers. She LOVES it. Her team is named "Sugar and Spice" and they're making a run for regionals. I wonder if Alaska has the same list of books as Oregon?
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susanne metcalf
2/14/2013 01:46:31 am
Way to GO! Sounds like fun!!!!
Miss you...and happy Valentines and almost birthday to you!
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Elizabeth
4/1/2013 07:31:08 am
I can't believe I missed publication of this entry recalling the days when we ruled forensics! I still have my W. Someday I'm going to sew it on a sexy sweater and pad my bra.
Battle of the Books sounds much, much harder. All we had to memorize was ten minutes' worth of lines.