Ending the Year
posted by Jon Cruz on June 2nd, 2009
NEW YORK, N.Y. — A speech and debate program is more than a simple team; in many ways, it’s a surrogate family. Few events, then, are more emotional than the end of a season: seeing off the seniors, celebrating achievements, reflecting on experiences, looking ahead to a new year.
Many programs end the season with a special event: a meal, an awards ceremony, or a combination of thereof. Does your team have any special ways of ending the season? Does it confer any special honors or awards? Tell us!
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Posted from: 68.209.198.15
June 2nd, 2009 23:46
at oak mountain we would always bitch and yell at each other one last time, then nag our coach to let us out of class early
Posted from: 141.155.159.136
June 2nd, 2009 23:50
The Bronx “ending of the year” ended with a meal AND an awards ceremony. I think that’s pretty epic.
Posted from: 69.124.42.30
June 2nd, 2009 23:56
At the end of the year, Hen Hud had our last bean trivia of the season. In the game, Menick never fails to forget the beans, in which case it becomes tally mark trivia. For this particular day, we ended up locked outside of our meeting room with no custodian to be found, so bean trivia happened in the hallway.
The highlight of the game were the new “lifelines”, which consisted of Text Anyone, Ask a Coach (Menick or the speech coach, typically), and Ask Cruz. Most of us used this as three different opportunities to bother Cruz.
Categories included something about Harry Potter, yeah that was the only memorable topic. Everything else I think most of us guessed on.
As usual, the game ended with us all vying for the crappiest crappy prize: A Yale Public Forum 9th Place Speaker Award, or some other crappy book on tape or something. And, as usual, I think I can speak for the team by saying no one was disappointed with the crappiness of their crappy prize.
Posted from: 98.14.255.196
June 2nd, 2009 23:56
The annual Awards Convocation at Bronx Science was an auditorium-based event that Richard B. Sodikow founded when he founded the team. I’ve run it as a dinner and awards ceremony, where we honor both our team members and our supporters (parents, alumni, administrators, etc.). The team also has a great tradition in which incoming officers pay tribute (or sometimes roast) outgoing officers. This year, our top four senior LDers happened to also be classmates and friends from kindergarten, which is extremely rare in New York City given how high school selection works, so it was especially poignant.
Posted from: 98.193.159.214
June 3rd, 2009 04:37
MBA has two end of the year events. The first one is a team dinner (really a lunch, but Mr. Tate likes to call it a dinner), which is often at a very nice hotel downtown. For the past several years, an anonymous alumnus has donated the meal to the team, and it’s always a great way to end the season. There’s also a tradition where the freshmen on the team have to make impromptu speeches at this dinner.
The second end of the year event is for seniors only, and it’s the senior lunch. Mr. Tate reveals very little about the senior lunch every year, so that each year’s seniors never know where the lunch takes place. In true Billy Tate style, we all pile into buses and drive about 45 minutes outside of Nashville to an incredible bed and breakfast owned by an MBA alum that serves us an incredible lunch. At this meal, Mr. Tate presents NFL certificates with the various degrees we’ve earned, but everyone really only goes for the food, which is incredible.
Posted from: 69.129.179.22
June 3rd, 2009 10:30
This post/thread is a great idea. For those schools who have NFL chapters, I am interested in developing some recommended “best practices” for honorary society customs that chapters can adopt for “induction” ceremonies, awards, honor cords, etc.
When I coached at Rufus King, we would have a combined debate/speech (since there are two separate seasons in Wisconsin) NFL chapter banquet at the end of the year. Over the years, the format would change ever so slightly, but the banquet was full of “roast” and tribute speeches, sample performances, and gifts galore. We would do funny team awards “Grumpiest in the Morning” and such, and of course, present NFL membership certificates, lapel pins, honor cords, Academic All-Americans, honorary memberships, etc. I was planning to implement a ceremony commemorating the five pillars of the NFL Code of Honor (similar to what NHS does for their pillars), but then I went to work for the NFL (I may still write that up at some point). I would also present the certificates and honor cords again at the all-school awards ceremony (along with NHS and the other subject-area honorary societies) as a means of establishing and maintaining the credibility of NFL as a honorary society (that was what convinced my principal to allow our cords at graduation).
Posted from: 64.206.54.130
June 3rd, 2009 10:54
We have a buffet dinner at a local restaurant; we give out NFL awards/pins/certs/cords, and then team awards: Rookies of the Year (one Debate, one Speech), Most Improved (one for the whole team), High Season and High Career points, and Most Valuable. The seniors then reflect on their S&D experiences, and somehow that turns into a roast of the coach. Of course, I’ve roasted them during the awards portion…so…it’s fair.
Parents are invited to the dinner.
[Don't get me started on the NHS....suffice it to say that when you're 16th in your class in HS and NHS takes numbers 1 - 15 and 17 - 20, you tend to think ill of the organization. And how can it be National when locals set the standards for admission? As I said, don't get me started.]
BC
Posted from: 69.115.18.52
June 3rd, 2009 17:36
*also at ALJ, as captains for speech or debate squad we pitch in and buy Mr. Cooper an end of the year gift, for the countless hours, weekends, and extra time he puts in just to keep our program running. also at ALJ as cooper would say it, “We are not a team but a family,” as such with my experience at ALJ that has proven to be true.
Posted from: 68.193.252.210
June 3rd, 2009 21:11
Thanks, Al. It’s true, and you’re the best :)
BC
Posted from: 137.52.211.175
June 4th, 2009 11:33
I have an end of the year video made with pictures, video from the year, etc. to outline all the places we’ve gone, the fun times and the successes. Then I burn a copy for each kid on the team so they can have it for themselves and their family! It’s a lot of fun.
We have a banquet where this takes place – special awards are given out, a senior speech takes place and I give a speech that looks back on the season. I also give out special awards and thanks. This year we got small trophies for our Parental Support Awards (kids idea) and it was really a great idea and the parents loved it.
The banquet is one of the best nights of the year for me in Forensics!
Posted from: 63.87.127.25
June 4th, 2009 15:08
Here at Blake, the parents and I started the “Sweet Success” event. We celebrate the year with awards, thanks, and an array of wonderful desert items.
Posted from: 96.229.143.242
June 4th, 2009 15:31
i get a swift kick in the nads.
Posted from: 72.25.137.106
June 4th, 2009 16:12
We call it the “Bietz Cup”
Posted from: 68.13.37.51
June 4th, 2009 21:30
I am pleased to hear that kicking Bietz in the nads is one tradition that has not died. i always have a banquet/potluck awards style deal and say nice stuff about the kids. when i was at fremont we had a tradition of making a nice plaque type deal with graduating seniors’ pictures who were double ruby or higher NFL folks. had several rows of those–they just stayed in the room. that was kind of a good deal, because the picture of john gibson was hillarious. 80′s mullet bigtime.
Posted from: 64.206.54.130
June 5th, 2009 09:09
>80’s mullet bigtime.
AUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH!
Worst … hairstyle … ever.
BC
Posted from: 67.159.44.51
June 6th, 2009 17:11
Will any other videos from the Tournament of Champions be posted? I can’t wait to see the final round, and it has been around a month since the last update.