Celebrity Judges

Well our debate club hosted our big round robin debate tournament this past Saturday. It was a great day, but my oh my, am I ever praising the Lord that it is OVER!!! The attention to detail comes close to doing in this phlegmatic every year -- one of the ladies from another club was saying they will be hosting a $5 no frills round robin in two weeks. It's really cheap and they don't worry about feeding or impressing anyone. I told her, in all sincerity, "I'd like to host a tournament like that!" But, praise the Lord, it is over and it was a very, very nice tournament. And thanks to people who care about details way more than I do, it had many lovely touches.

While it takes oodles of things to make a tournament successful, one of the most basic requirements is someone to judge each round. We ran 32 debates simultaneously for four rounds and then a novice and varsity final with three judges each. If you do the math, or if you read on, you discover we required 134 judges Saturday!!

How hard is judging? Well, each round allows for 52 minutes of speaking time and 10 minutes of prep time (that 52 minutes of speaking time is spread between 4 speakers and 8 speeches). So after the judge has listened to two teams present opposing views regarding reforming NATO for 52 minutes, said judge has to then decide which team was most convicing and why. Additionally, speaker points in 6 different categories must be decided upon and finally each speaker ranked from 1st to 4th. Admittedly, it is a "make-your-brain-spin" job. Therefore we are so thankful for every willing judge. In particular, we are especially thankful to our community judges. Parents of debaters have no choice about judging, but our community judges make a very sacrificial choice when they help us out. Because of this, I dedicate this post to the wonderful people who willingly spent part of a gorgeous Saturday judging for our tournament. Thank you!

I especially want to highlight three of the celebrity judges that appeared at our tournament. The first is Mr. Peter Brown, a dead ringer for Ashton Kutcher (we won't bring up Sandra Bullock). Not only did Peter judge, he very competently judged FOUR rounds!! I have NEVER judged four rounds in one day and I am a little in awe of Peter's ability to do that. Mr. Peter Brown -- we thank you and we salute you! Maybe he'd like us to now now refer to him as Judge Kludge--or not.

Our next celebrity judge is Mrs. Stephanie Writebol. I knew this teacher/vice-principal would make a wonderful judge and she did. Although she whined a bit after orientation and kept repeating, "You owe me big time, Jennifer", she actually had a good time and even volunteered to judge a second round that she wasn't signed up for. Yup, she was a good judge. In fact, she was so good that when she turned in her second ballot, I made sure she got an upgraded judge's gift. Most judges just received a pack of gummi-lifesavers with a cheesy little sticker that said, "Thank you for judging -- you are a REAL LIFESAVER!" But Stephanie got a mug. I knew she'd like that because teachers just LOVE to receive mugs as presents. I also need to thank Mrs. Christine Carrillo for the moral support she provided Stephanie as she judged her two rounds--and for helping make sure Stephanie didn't forget her mug.

The final celebrity judge I'd like to mention is Michael P. Farris, Esq. Michael Farris is the Chancellor at Patrick Henry College and is the cofounder (and current board chairman and general counsel) of Home School Legal Defense Association. He is also a constitutional lawyer, a leading pro-family activist on Capitol Hill, a published author of 13 books, and an ordained minister. Education Week named Mike one of the 100 most significant “Faces of the Century” in education, and he is listed in Praying for the World’s 365 Most Influential People. Mike and his wife Vickie have been married since 1971; they have 10 children and seven grandchildren. They have been homeschooling since 1982. (Taken from HSLDA Web page)

Dr. Farris happened to be in the area for a wedding and came to judge one of our rounds and then address the students. He brought along give-aways, such as the Patrick Henry mug that Stephanie received (it is an attractive cobalt blue), and encouraged the students to consider Patrick Henry for themselves. His oldest daughter, Christy Shipe, is one of the founders of the NCFCA which is the league our students debate in. Having Dr. Farris at our tournament was a huge honor, and I might add, I spoke to him personally on three occasions AND shook his hand!

Once again, all of our 130 debaters and parents alike are so very thankful for each of the willing individuals that judged for us Saturday. For those of you who passed on this opportunity, you might be a little more willing now that you know the celebrities events like this attract!

If we were to give out MVP awards, one would certainly go to Mr. Wayne O'Leary, the facilities supervisor at Santa Rosa Bible Church. We are praising God for this gracious, helpful, and downright likable servant of God!