Third Time Lucky

This was a very good weekend.

It was the wrap-up of the annual Florida Forensic League State Debate Championship Tournament in Ft. Lauderdale. Wellington's presence was small but mighty - all of three students.

Sophomore Stephie Maravankin placed ninth in her Congressional Debate chamber - a chamber so deep it resembled a national championship semifinal round, according to multiple coaches. It was only her fourth time competing in the event, which would make the odds of her making it to the state championship amazingly slim, until you realize she has nearly two full years of debate experience under her belt. She switched to Congressional Debate only a month ago after competing for most of her debate career in Public Forum Debate, a two-on-two partnered event where students discuss current event topics that change monthly.

Junior Michael Reynolds narrowly missed advancing from preliminary rounds in Humorous Interpretation, closing out his final round with what he described as his best performance of the year (and placing first in the round as well). Michael is an outstanding performer who immersed himself into debate in part to help reduce or eliminate a stuttering problem. He has more than excelled in that department, and has proven to be a leader in the program. Michael went to the debate national championships his sophomore year in Duo Interpretation, and there is no doubt in my mind he can advance to nationals again this year.

My third representative at the state championship was freshman Michael Leatherman, who also barely missed breaking to advanced rounds, falling to one of the evential state co-champions in his bubble round of Lincoln Douglas Debate. LD is a one-on-one debate event where students argue philosophically about a specific topic. Michael has quickly adapted to the event and its fundamental nuances, and is a bright light among this year's stellar novice class.

Normally, that would be the end of my commentary, praising the successes of my students and congratulating them on a job well done. In my book, it's not about the trophies, it's about the advancements they make en route to becoming positive members of the adult community. And it's never about me.

But this wasn't a normal tournament; I was one of six Florida high school debate coaches who had been nominated by our respective regions to be the state's Coach of the Year. It was my third time being nominated by the Macaw Region (the other two were in 2004-05 and 2008-09). It was an honor just to be nominated out of the Palm Beach County/Martin County coaching society; there are a number of other amazing and overly qualified peers who I believe are more worthy than I. But at last month's state qualifier tournament, the majority of the coaches' votes were cast for me, and I graciously accepted the honor.

The other five regional nominees were all equally amazing, maybe even more so. They included Steven Stanquist of Gulf Breeze High School, Maureen Mannion of Legacy High School, Terri St. John of Sarasota High School, Dario Camara of Christopher Columbus High School, and Megan West of Cypress Bay High School. I don't really know much about Steven, who is fairly new to the coaching world, but I am extremely familiar with the other four. Maureen is the FFL treasurer, and has done a phenomenal job getting our league out of fiscal hell the past few years. Terri is an experienced and successful coach who was the state's COY in 2005-06. Dario, who used to coach in Palm Beach County, is the FFL's Vice President of Operations. Megan has kick-started a relatively new program and is a former national champion debater.

For all my successes, I barely consider myself in the same zip code.

Now, maybe I'm selling myself short. (OK, I probably am.) But I'm good at that. Still, I made sure to push as many positive buttons when filling out my FFL Coach of the Year questionnaire. I was asked a number of pertinent questions - why I got involved in coaching, what motivates me to put in the hours I do, what successes have my students had at debate tournaments, in what kind of leadership positions and outside-of-the-classroom debate activities have I immersed myself, what have been the most important contributions I have made to debate outside the classroom, and what have been the most rewarding and challenging aspects of being a coach.

These were difficult questions to answer. As most people know, it is very difficult to praise yourself, and I am no different. I pounded out answers to the questions and had two fellow coaches - Jupiter's Kristie Taylor and Suncoast's Traci Lowe - critique them. They both offered great advise on what to cut, add, and tweak. When I sent in my official questionnaire (which is linked here), it was three pages long.

The six coaches' questionnaires were reviewed by most of the FFL Board of Directors. I say "most" because any league official who is nominated for the state award is ineligible to vote. This meant out of the 11 FFL officers, neither I, Terri, Dario nor Maureen had a vote. That meant the decision was in the hands of the other seven officers.

And the announcement would be made at the FFL Championship awards ceremony.

Like I said, I honestly expected someone else to be honored. If I were a betting man, I'd have put cash on anyone but me. And as all six of us stood on stage, with league President Carol Cecil behind the microphone, I was resigned to that fate, and was not sad about that resignation.

Little did I know how wrong I'd be. I was stunned - absolutely stunned - when Carol announced my name. And as the crowd of students, coaches and judges stood and applauded, I was congratulated by my five peers on stage. And then Carol said that Dario had told her previously, if I had won, he wanted to give a speech.

So she handed over the podium to Dario. And he spoke:

Paul Gaba: "The Force is strong with this." 

When I came to Palm Beach in 2008, I noticed Paul as the person who was truly taking steps to make every event fair and competitive. His energy and ambition to ensure the quality of education we expect from speech and debate is amazing. As a national, state and regional champion coach Paul continues to impress us with his ability to coach his own team while transforming the face of Palm Beach. 

Paul runs all local Palm Beach tournaments with great efficiency, encouraging participation by everyone and ensuring everyone has a fair round. In a RAV 4 which has over 250,000 miles, Paul will be the first one at a tournament and the last one to leave the tournament. 

Paul struggles with trying to create a process by holding countless fundraisers to assist his team and others with tournament costs. In a world where school districts feel speech and debate is no longer important, Paul uses his personal time to recruit middle school students for the debate program, and it doesn't matter which high school they attend, as long as they participate. 

With suspenders on, Mr. Gaba is a friendly, approachable coach that will sit with other teams and speak to them about improving their skills. He is unbelievably honest! As the Vice President/Webmaster of the Florida Forensic League, he keeps us all together, connected and vital. Ask Mr. Gaba a question, he will have an answer, and he will impress you. His message to all the competitors today would be, "May The Force be with you." 

If everyone was a little more like Paul, the world would be a better place.

I was presented - along with the speech - with an engraved vase and a smaller glass engraved arrowhead trophy (as regional coach). They will be brought to my classroom tomorrow morning, joining the relatively small, but wonderful, collection of other awards I have received from either the debate community or Toastmasters International.Yeah, it was a good weekend.