Dallas Vacation - June 2015

The first week of Summer vacation usually takes Chad out of town for a full 6 or 7 days, as he chaperones qualifying students to the annual National Forensic League (NFL) tournament.  While the destinations aren't always exotic, this year we got lucky -- "Nationals" was in Dallas!  It was a perfect opportunity to visit our dear friends The Sullivans for an extended vacation (well, for me and the girls, anyway!).  The four of us flew out to DFW together, along with the students Chad had qualified.  While he spent a week up to his neck in the tournament, the girls and I hung out with Randy, Lindsey, Brynlee and Degan at their new home in Prosper.  Chad joined us at the conclusion of the tournament and we spent another week there together, this time with our favorite foursome (US) in tact.  

Highlights of the trip: seeing all of Randy and Lindsey's family, Chad and Randy playing at "Top Golf," the Dallas "indoor" zoo, whiskey tasting, experiencing major Summer storms/flooding, and watching our four kids play together.

We continue to be SO BLESSED by our 11-year friendship with The Sullivans.  There is never a dull moment together, and it always feels like our hearts are home.

Hat Trick! Another Valley Championship for CNHS Forensics

Congratulations to CHAD and his forensics team for winning the Valley Championship in speaking events...for the third year in a row!  Below is an excerpt from the news article he circulated around the CNHS campus, sharing the tremendous achievement.

The Clovis North Forensics team won the SVFL Valley Championship for a third consecutive year last Saturday at South High School in Bakersfield. Clovis North fended off a very competitive Stockdale High School to win its fourth title in five years. Overall sweepstakes are determined by points awarded for students in the final rounds of all 12 speaking events. The final sweepstakes points for the top three teams are as follows:

1st place - Clovis North High School - 85 points 

2nd place - Stockdale High School - 79 points 

3rd place - University High School - 56 points 

Special congratulations go out to the following students for their exceptional performance and to those who qualified to the State Championships being held April 17-19 in Temecula, CA. 

Hayk Kosaian & Sammy Linkowski - Valley Champions - Duo Interpretation (State Qualifiers)

Vishnu Pamula - Valley Champion - Original Oratory (State Qualifier) 

Maya Srikanth - 2nd Place - Original Oratory (State Qualifier) 

Justin Lagera - 6th place - Original Oratory (1st Alternate) 

Alexa Perricone - Valley Champion - Original Advocacy (State Qualifier) 

Pooja Heragu - 3rd place - Original Advocacy (State Qualifier) 

Meenu Pamula - 5th place - Original Advocacy (State Qualifier) 

Matthew Cuevas - 2nd Place - Humorous interpretation (State Qualifier) 

Spencer Rosen - 4th Place - Humorous Interpretation (State Qualifier) 

Erika Osilla - 5th Place - Humorous Interpretation (State Qualifier) 

Seshaan Ratnam - 5th place - Impromptu Speaking (State Qualifier) 

Jashanpal Mangat - 6th place - Impromptu Speaking (State Qualifier) 

 


Mr. Hayden and his Valley Champions!

Clovis North Valley Champs - AGAIN!

Chad shared the following update with all Clovis North faculty last week.  His coaching successes continue to impress all of us! 

 

 

 

Congratulations to the Clovis North Forensics team for winning the SVFL Valley Championships for the second year in a row.  Saturday's competition was held at Sanger High School and was the second leg of the tournament, completing the final 6 of 12 events.  Clovis North edged out a very competitive Clovis East who had been threatening throughout the tournament. Sweepstakes points are based on the number of students in the final round of the competition.

 

 

Clovis North: 73 points - 1^st place

Clovis East: 69 points - 2^nd place

Stockdale: 30 points - 3^rd place

Edison: 22 points - 4^th place

Sanger: 22 points - 5^th place

University H.S.: 20 points - 6^th place

 

 

2013 Crystal Award Winner!

Chad received quite an honor last week when he was given a prestigious "Crystal Award" from Clovis Unified School District!  According to CUSD, "Clovis Unified’s Crystal Awards program seeks to honor exceptional district employees. Specifically, all Crystal Award recipients have demonstrated that they effectively exhibited Clovis Unified’s core values and that they have moved the district forward through applying these values to meet one of the district’s aims. Ultimately, these employees are making a significant impact on the lives of students, their colleagues, their site and the district."  (The award's webpage shows a complete list of winners for 2013.)

 

The honorees were invited to a special pre-ceremony reception before the beautiful awards show in the gorgeous Paul Shaghoian Concert Hall (which is, conveniently, just across the street from our house!).  For each award winner, a slide show was presented showing what they have done to earn the nomination and recognition.  I was able to capture Chad's slide show on video (below).  I've also included some pics from the evening and a slide show of the best pics from the ceremony's slide show...if that sounds confusing, just see the stuff below my signature!

 

None of us who know Chad and how hard he works were a bit surprised at the nomination and award!  And each year it becomes more and more clear how much his colleagues respect him and how much his students esteem him as one of their favorites and most influential.  And this Mrs. was so blessed that in the event's program, he credited me for much of his success!  It's true that we both work hard and support each other relentlessly in our respective careers.  I couldn't be more proud of Mr. Hayden!

Happy Holidays 2012

As usual, the Haydens enjoyed a busy holiday season full of gatherings with family and friends.  I have always felt like we were light on tradition, but as I wrote this I realized just how many holiday traditions we do enjoy each year.  We are certainly blessed as we head into 2013!

December 3 - Junior League Holiday Social at Piazza Del Pane.  Below is a pic of me with the rest of the 2013-2014 Board of Directors.  Next year I take on the role of Board secretary!  This was a fun little social designed for girl time, cocktails, and a "favorite things" gift exchange.  A great way to kick off the holiday season!

I'm in the back row, second from left, in red!

December 7 - PrideStaff Christmas Party at Fort Washington Country Club.  This is our favorite holiday party every year -- PrideStaff never disappoints!  Somehow I missed getting a picture of Chad and I together, but I got a few with the girls and PLENTY with our special entertainment: Elvis!  Local Elvis impersonator Jeremy Pierce has been a regular at the PrideStaff holiday parties for at least 10 years and he never gets old (literally and figuratively)!  He's also an old debate buddy of Chad's, so it's fun to say "We knew him when...."

Sarah & Dani. Love the dress she loaned
to me...and then GAVE to me!

Elvis in the house!

December 9 - Gingerbread Houses with "the cousins."  We are really enjoying this holiday tradition that we've graciously been included in!  Each year we get together with my aunt/uncle/cousins (and their spouses/kids) to decorate graham cracker "gingerbread" houses.  It's super fun despite the fact that our structural integrity and artistic flair are devolving as the years progress.  Year one we had the standout house, year two our roof collapsed, and year three I spent so much time working on a house that would stand up that we lost precious decorating time.  OH WELL!  Although next year I'm going to suggest that we all come with our houses pre-made, blank on the outside, so that we can concentrate on eating candy decorating them to the hilt.  Here's a pic of this year's masterpiece, omplete with half-marshmallow pseudo-snow tufts on the roof.

December 14 - PrideStaff RiskManagement Department Christmas Party at Nathan and Trish's.  Since our department has gotten so big in the past year, we thought it would be fun to have our very own Christmas party.  Nathan offered to host it at his place, so we made it into a potluck.  His wife, Trish, planned out some very fun games and prizes for us and when we finished "Christmas Pictionary" we were all sore from laughing so hard.  It was a really fun night and we came home with a super plush "sherpa" throw for our couch that matches our living room perfectly.

Clockwise from top left: Nathan, Danielle B., Danielle H. (Dani),
Beverly, Me, Shirley, Maribeth, Rachel.

December 21 - Forensics Christmas Potluck at Christiana's.  How do you know you're a fantastic teacher?  When your students still want to hang out with you over the holidays and/or long after they graduate!  This has turned out to be a new holiday tradition for us -- a get-together with all of the forensics students from class of 2011 (those who graduated and also those who were on the team with those who graduated). This year instead of going out to a restaurant we had a potluck and white elephant gift exchange at the home of one of Chad's favorites, Christiana.  She's a sophomore at Duke this year.  (This is a totally separate topic, but MAN these class of 2011 kids are SMART.)  We had a great time catching up on their latest college adventures and I brought home a Mr. Potato Head for Tess!

The group, minus a few who couldn't make it.

With Christiana ~ she captioned this photo "Two people I really
look up to." Aww! She's about as great as they come!

December 23 - Holiday Open House In Hollister.  We had a last-minute opportunity to spend the Sunday before Christmas with Chad's extended family (the Drydens) in Hollister.  We enjoyed great food and great company, got to hang out with some of our favorite cousins, and Tess got to see her great aunts/uncles and great grandpa.  (On the Dryden side of the family we are up to 6 great granddaughters and 2 great grandsons!)



Here's Great Grandpa ("Pop") with 5 of his 8 great grandchildren.



 December 24 - Christmas Eve Cookie Baking.  Holiday sugar cookie making/decorating is slowly becoming an annual tradition with my Mom (Grandma Melody), and this year we got together at my house along with her sister (my Aunt Debbie) and cousin Valerie.  Tess enjoyed eating the dough and playing around with all the supplies....at one point her hands and mouth were completely red from getting into the sprinkles!

Tess wearing her first little apron and helping
press out the shapes with the cookie cutters. 

December 25 - Christmas In Reedley.  Another Christmas tradition for us is spending Christmas morning in Reedley with the Unruh parents and Uncle Dick, Aunt Debbie, and cousin Valerie.  We typically open our stocking stuffers first (all individually wrapped!) and then have breakfast before opening gifts.  Each year Valerie makes a delicous "stuffed blueberry french toast casserole" with homemade blueberry syrup.  YUM!

All dressed up for Christmas Day.

A tired Christmas Tess enjoying one of her favorite gifts.

December 28 - Christmas With The Eastons.  Our dear friends Michael and Sara Easton were in town for the holidays, and they threw a fun little holiday get together that included a variety of mutual friends we've met over the many years we've known them.  Many guests were people we hadn't seen in years so we thoroughly enjoyed catching up.  We had a delicious dinner, played "tele-pictionary" (hilarious!) and took turns sharing about 2012 highlights and 2013 hopes.  I took my camera but was having too much fun and forgot to take pictures!

December 29 - Christmas Tea At American.  Cousin Valerie just returned from about 3 months in Germany, and a few weeks ago she mentioned she was having a tea party with some of her girlfriends.  I thought it would be fun to put on a tea party, too, so we decided to have one with our mothers and picked the Saturday after Christmas to do it.  The table was set with china and serveware that is full of family history and while we ate we talked about where each piece came from and why it was special.  On the menu: salad with a variety of flavored balsamic vinegars and olive oils, homemade yellow split pea soup, homemade cranberry scones, lemon curd and clotted cream, and Christmas tea from Germany.  Tess was with us and managed to make it through the meal without breaking anything, and ate almost an entire scone by herself!

Table set for beautiful Christmas Tea.

December 29 - Christmas With The Haydens.  Chad's brother, sister-in-law, and our nieces came down for the weekend so that we could celebrate Christmas with the parents on that side.  Although I couldn't make it to breakfast at Geoff and Toni's, we did share a meal with Chris, Kristi, Elise, and Everlee at Paul and Barbara's.  Whenever we do Christmas dinner at the Villescas home we spice it up with Mexican food!  This year was delicious taco salads.  Tess got to play with her cousins and open presents with them.  It was a fun night!

Tess in her Christmas outfit from Grandma V.

The little cousins having dinner together - so cute!

December 30 - Christmas With The Suiches. Our Fullerton family made a day trip up to Clovis to share a holiday meal with us and exchange presents.  Chad and I made a delicious pot roast, mashed potatoes, green beans and garlic bread for dinner and we had an assortment of holiday goodies for dessert.  We had a quiet day around the fireplace television and enjoyed each others' company. Thank goodness for low-key holiday events, because we were approaching burnout!

December 31 - New Year's Eve With Friends.  It's been several years since we went to an actual NYE party where we could cut loose and count down with other people.  This year we marked the occasion with some dear friends made through PrideStaff, whose daughter is also Tess's favorite babysitter.  We ended up staying night at their place (all three of us) and spending a relaxing New Year's morning recovering together.

Happy New Year from the Haydens!

January 1 - New Year's Day With The Unruhs.  Each year the extended Unruh family (all 30+ of us) gets together on New Year's Day to eat up the last of the holiday goodies and do a name-draw gift exchange.  We started doing this many, many years ago when we got too big to get together on Christmas Eve/Christmas day due to other family commitments.  It really works out well because it guarantees we all see each other and is a nice finale to the holiday season.  This year we got together at my Uncle Dave and Aunt Gloria's new home in Sunnyside, and every single family member was present (a rarity!).  We managed to get a group picture without too much trouble, but we're so big now that it's hard to get time with everyone in just a couple of hours.  Even so, it's a wonderful way to start the new year.

This is ALL OF US!  Wow.  Shocking we fit into one pic, and we didn't have to use the wide-angle lens!

Tess has a thing for hats...so cute!

Future CNHS Bronco?

With the school year winding down, there have been lots of opportunities for "end of the year" parties at Mr. Hayden's classroom. Below are pics of one very special guest, beloved by teacher and students alike! She quickly made friends with Chad's students and with all of his pens.  What a cutie!

Last day of class for Seniors -- visiting 5th period AP Lit

Forensics end-of-year party and "awards night"

Clovis North State Champ!

Chad hit another career milestone last month when one of his students took first place at the state speech and debate championships.  That's right -- number one in the whole state of California!

To quote the article in the Fresno Bee, "Ritu Jayakrishnan won on April 29 for his speech advocating the passage of the STOCK Act, which would end insider trading among members of Congress...Jayakrishan competed in the Original Advocacy event, in which competitors must give an originally crafted speech that discusses a problem and provides a legislative solution."

Ritu was the only state champ this year from the Southern Valley Foresnic League, which includes schools from Fresno to Kern Counties.  He competed against 194 other students in this particular event and was among 56 who made it to the state tournament.

If this doesn't speak to fantastic coaching, I don't know what does!  Did you know? Chad was once himself a state champ -- in debate! I had almost forgotten it until I sat down to share this little update.  The excellency continues...we are so proud of him!

Performing Big - Deep In The Heart Of Texas!

For the second year in a row, Clovis North Forensics qualified to the National Forensic League National Championships -- this year in downtown Dallas, Texas, from June 13-18. On all accounts, the tournament proved to be terrific experience. 

The team qualified 6 students to the tournament -- 3 seniors and 3 sophomores:

Dalton Defendis & Michael Greenbury – Policy Debate

Eugene Park – Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Dolapo Sangokoya – Dramatic Interpretation

Jennifer Zheng – International Extemporaneous Speaking

Josh Samra – Student Congress

The week-long tournament was run differently than previous Nationals in that the entire tournament was held in the Downtown Sheraton Hotel! That’s right, all 50 states, Guam and representatives from China converged on the Sheraton for a week of crowded hallways and backed-up elevators. But in the end, the chaotic logistics of competing in a large hotel proved to make for some interesting memories. The tournament began with registration on Monday, June 13th. Students competed in 6 preliminary rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday night, the field of 250+ students in each event were cut to 60 students. And for the first time in my National Tournament career, Clovis North Forensics broke students from the preliminary rounds into the demanding out-rounds.

• In Policy Debate, Dalton Defendis and Michael Greenbury advanced to round 9 – one of the top 40 teams in the country.
• In Dramatic Interpretation, Dolapo Sangokoya advanced to the Semi-Final round and placed 8th in the country. No other student from Clovis Unified has performed so well since 1991.

In addition to the highlights of the tournament, the students got to enjoy Texas BBQ, as well as the beauty and efficiency of the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit), and witness the very spot where JFK was assassinated. By the end of the tournament, all of us were ready to come home. It was a bittersweet moment at the Fresno Air Terminal where I had to say goodbye to 3 seniors who had become like my own children over the last three years of competition.

2010-2011 was a memorable year for Clovis North Forensics. Valley Champions, District Champions, a finalist at State and a semi-finalist at Nationals. Next year, it's back to square one. After losing so many seniors, we will begin the process of rebuilding. But isn’t that what’s fun about coaching? The challenges are always new and they never cease.



Clovis North Forensics Awards

On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of joining Chad and Broc (his assistant coach) as they gave their annual awards presentation to the speech & debate team. Plaques were presented for MVP, Coaches' Award, Outstanding Freshman/ Sophomore/ Junior/ Senior, etc. We gathered in Mr. Hayden's classroom for pizza first and then went next door into "The Forensics Room" (yes, Chad has 2 classrooms!) for a special video and the awards presentation.

The video was fantastic, put together by senior student Christiana. Each senior student on the team gave a tribute to Mr. Hayden. I will see if I can get it to upload to Blogger.

After the awards, the seniors also presented Mr. Hayden with some very special gifts, which are pictured below. This year's team had 13 seniors who performed SO well but are now going off to college...we will miss them very much!

"Baby" quilt made for Mr. Hayden by the graduating seniors

Signed poster from the graduating seniors

Students Of Excellence At CNHS

Last night we ventured over to the Clovis Unified district office to attend the school board meeting, as several students within the district were being recognized for their various academic achievements. Chad's top students were on hand to receive "Student of Excellence" medals for their achievements in speech and debate! L to R, below: Chad, Dolapo, Jennifer, Michael, Dalton, and Eugene. Go team!

Clovis North "Showcase of Talent"

Last night Chad and his Forensics team hosted their first annual "Showcase of Talent." The purpose of the event, a dinner fundraiser, was to feature the students who were the top speakers in the Valley and raise some much-needed funds for their trip to the National Forensic League tournament in Dallas this June. Guests enjoyed the meal catered by Luna's Italian Restaurant and served by the kids. While eating and enjoying dessert and coffee, the 6 students going to Nationals performed their award-winning pieces. The night was a big success for the team (they raised more than $2,000.00!) and a great opportunity for parents and family to hear the pieces that the kids have worked so hard on all year. Chad is looking forward to making the event even better next year -- hopefully it will become a fun tradition! Below are pics of Chad introducing the students going to Nationals and the trophies the team has collected over the year.

Clovis North Forensics: More Record-Setting Achievements!

Last month I blogged about the team's success at the Logan Invitational over the weekend of February 11th. This has quickly become old news! The very next weekend, the team went on to partipate in the even-bigger annual speech and debate invitational at UC Berkeley (you may recall my posts from our trip to Berkeley last year) where more than 2,500 kids from more than 20 states compete. In a victory unprecedented in Chad's coaching career, one of his kids (Kyle) made it all the way to the final round in "dramatic interpretation" and took 6th place in the tournament.

From there, just one week later, the team won the entire Valley Championships (the best out of all 23 schools in their League, which stretches from Fresno to Bakersfield) and Dolapo again took first place in "dramatic interpretation," using the same piece that scored her the victory at Logan.

Talk about a "hat trick" -- that's three weekends in a row of record-setting achievements for Chad and his team!

As if that weren't enough, last weekend Chad and the kids ventured down to Bakersfield for the District Championship. This is the tournament that qualifies kids to the National Forensic League tournament in June. (Learn more about "Forensics" here.) In another string of impressive victories, Dolapo again took first place in "dramatic interpretation," while Eugene took first place in Lincoln-Douglas debate and Jennifer took first place in "international extemporaneous speaking." Dalton took second place in "oratory," and the entire team took sweepstakes, once again showing the other 23 schools in their League who is the top team in the Valley!

In June, Chad and 5 of his top competitors will travel to Dallas for the National tournament. In the meantime, we're grateful that the tournament schedule slows down until then.

Another MAJOR Clovis North Forensics Victory!

Better to share late than never....the Clovis North High School Forensics team had a MAJOR victory last month! The team attended the "James Logan High School Speech and Debate Invitational" over the MLK holiday weekend. (Logan High School's Forensics program is one of the top 5 in the country; thousands of students from around California and surrounding states come to compete at this famous 3-day tournament.) One of Chad's star competitors, a Senior girl named Dolapo, took first place in Dramatic Interpretation. This is record-breaking, first-time victory for Chad as a coach, for CNHS, and for the South Valley Forensics League overall! To have a student take first place at this level of competition is extremely impressive, and speaks highly of the quality students at CNHS and Chad's abilities as a coach. Congrats to Chad and the team!

World's Busiest Sweetie

These past few months have felt like the busiest EVER for The Haydens! Chad's schedule has consisted of the usual teaching (2 periods of English 11 and 2 periods of Advanced Placement Literature ["AP Lit"], 1 period of speech/debate ["Forensics"]), coaching Forensics tournaments on the weekends, fitting in some private debate lessons (a great way to earn "fun money"), grading essays (about 75 at a time) and also participating in the ELA program with a group of other esteemed teachers from Clovis Unified. The ELA program participation requires him to write 6 lesson plans per semester that are 100% based on California's standards. Each lesson has to have its components cross-referenced with this 92-page standards manual. Fun, fun! It's been a lot of hard work but also speaks to his knowledge as a teacher and the respect that his peers have for his teaching/lesson planning ability.

Last week I took the day off work and spent a few hours in Mr. Hayden's classroom. I've always wanted to do this, and we finally made it happen. It's fun to make a rare appearance and hear the kids whispering, "Is that Mrs. Hayden?" I got to observe the Forensics class (kids practicing their speeches) and the AP Lit class (kids explicating poems written on the theme "An Ode to Autumn" - very impressive!) and watch my sweetie in his element. Interesting trivia, my boss's daughter is one of his students and was in the class I observed. Anyway, it was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again! Here's a pic that I was able to sneak, of Chad interacting with some of the kiddos. I'm super proud of him for being such a well-liked and accomplished teacher and coach!

From Sprinklers To Syllabi

With our backyard project still in the works, Chad headed back to school on Monday. This year he is teaching English 11 (reading highlights include The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, along with various poems and short stories) and 12th grade Advanced Placement Literature (students will be reading The Scarlet Letter, The Sorrows of Young Werter, The Awakening, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Heart of Darkness, Hamlet, No Exit and The Stranger). Along with a hefty syllabus and numerous late nights spent grading essays, teaching AP Lit promises a year full of insightful discussions with Clovis North’s most academically involved and ambitious students.

We spent the weekend getting “back to school” ready by hitting up the Tulare outlets (shopping for him – it’s a rare occurrence!) and putting the finishing touches on his classroom décor. This year Chad has TWO classrooms (how cool is that?!) – one for English and the other for the Forensics (Speech & Debate) team. Check out the pics of Mr. Hayden’s room below!

Record Victory For Clovis North Forensics!

This past weekend, Clovis North High School hosted the national qualifying forensics tournament. (For those of you who aren't sure what I'm talking about, check out this post.) By way of background, each school in the region takes a turn hosting one tournament each season. Some tournaments are for speaking events; some are for debate events. This tournament was a 3-day ordeal that included ALL events (both speaking and debate) to qualify students to the national forensics tournament this coming June (in Kansas City, MO). There were 28 schools represented, with more than 250 students competing. It's an exhausting, whirlwind event for Chad because, as the coach for the hosting school, he's got to coordinate everything it takes to run the tournament -- classrooms to be used during the competition, parent judges to judge rounds, custodial staff during the event, snack bar fund raising, food for the volunteer judges, etc. I'm typically on call to help with the snack bar, judging, and food service as needed. However, the event absolutely couldn't happen without help from Chad's mom, who is always available to coordinate, pick up, and serve meals to the parent judges. Thank you so much Barbara -- and Paul, too! This year we fed a total of 5 meals to the 80 or so judges who came out to support the tournament.

The GREAT news is that for all of our hard work, Chad's team had several outstanding victories! Brandi (a freshman!) won first place in Lincoln-Douglas debate, with junior Christiana coming in 2nd place behind her. Dolapo (junior) took first place in Dramatic Interpretation for her presentation of "The Color Purple." Dalton (junior) took first place in Original Oratory for his speech called "The Blame Game." Shaun and Jennifer (both juniors) took 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, in International Extemporaneous. Overall the team took 2nd place in "sweepstakes" behind Bakersfield High. This means that Chad has six students going to the national tournament this summer! (In previous years, he's taken anywhere from 1-3 kids.) Look out, Kansas City!

Weekend At Berkeley

Woo! Our blog now has 5 followers. =) You'd think with the 100+ Christmas cards I send out, all with our blog address, I could get a little more action. Maybe many have bookmarked me but don't follow. Anyway, I'm having fun with this online journal and photo album. I always wish Chad would blog more because he's such a smart cookie and a really great writer and he has lots of important stuff he could share. I will keep working on that!

Anyway....the tail end of January and month of February are blowing by with debate debate debate on the calendar. I don't know how Chad survives it, working hard all week (having to be "on," talking and teaching students all day seems exhausting to me) and then giving up Saturdays to coach. It's truly his passion, investing in the kids and watching them grow and succeed.

This past weekend I accompanied the team to the Berkeley Invitational, which is the largest speech & debate tournament in the U.S. each year. More than 2500 kids come from 20+ states to compete. It's known for being intense and cut-throat, and it's the training ground for the national tournament that's held each year in June. The University of California campus is just beautiful, and provided hours of enjoyment for me and my camera/iPhone. I had a great time walking (hiking, really) around the campus, exploring Telegraph Avenue, and spending some time with the kids on the team. I didn't get to judge any rounds (debate it so complex it makes my head hurt) but I did sit with Chad through a round of "humorous interpretation" that was quite entertaining.

Overall his kids did GREAT against some very tough, national competition. In Policy Debate, Kyle and Tim advanced to the double Octofinal Round. In Dramatic Interpretation and Humorous Interpretation, Dolapo advanced to the Octofinal Round. And in Original Oratory, Dalton advanced to the quarter-final round and was one of the top 15 of more than 150 speakers!

My favorite quote from the campus: "Berkeley will drown you in a fountain of knowledge...and then teach you to walk on water." Below are some of my iPhone pics of the campus, debaters, Telegraph Avenue, etc. Enjoy!

The famous Sather Tower...

The beautiful Life Sciences building...

The original library...

Sather Gate...

Tulip trees...

Students plugged in and prepping for rounds...

Debate boxes full of evidence...