High Fives All Around

It was a huge debate tournament last weekend.  There were teams from four states there.  There were private school teams in matching navy blue blazers and ties that made the Nebraska public school kids double take and whisper.  Mary excitedly whispered, "They have accents!  It's so adorable!"

There are different tiers of debate tournaments.  This tournament was so large that it was able to offer a Tournament of Champions bid to the teams that made it out of octofinals and into quarterfinals.  (TOC is a higher level tournament and you need two bids to even sign up to compete in a TOC tournament.)

I was busy judging for most of the two days.  I happened to have a round off while Mary and her partner were in octofinals (really just even breaking to octofinals at a tournament like this is awesome).  Rather than sit in the judge's lounge, I sat in the cafeteria with the other kids who were in between rounds because I knew that Mary would head back to the Lincoln High table after her round.

When I saw her face come around the corner clutching her binder to her chest I knew they had won their round.  And when she sent a thumbs up to her teammates waiting for her, I teared up.  It felt like my heart was trying to come up my throat.

They lost later in quarterfinals in a 2-1 decision, but the glow from octos remained.  So quarterfinals, a TOC bid, and Mary's partner got the top speaker award.  Wow.  And yet there was more.  The tournament director was my old debate coach and he is retiring, so this was his last tournament as a host.  Mary went to Fred's camp last summer and while she has always had a connection to Fred through me, she has one of her own now because he has also coached her.  When Mary went up to get her award, Fred stepped away from the podium to give her a high five.

Sometimes life is perfect.  I like it when I can just sit back and watch.