I dropped the ball a bit in planning for this, my second, year as a DDF (Drama, Debate, and Forensics--basically, it means competitive public speaking) coach. Based on last year's schedule, and how busy I knew I would be at the beginning of this school year, I thought that starting after Labor Day would give my team plenty of time to prepare. Unfortunately, I found out recently that the first tournament will be held two weeks earlier than previous years' opening tournaments have been held--and less than two weeks after my originally planned first meeting. Thus, I pushed forward my parent-information meeting to this evening rather than holding it the week after Labor Day (and thus after Homecoming).
I truly had no idea what to expect for turnout. I hadn't been great about advertising the meeting, but I had also heard from multiple people that there were a number of students who had expressed their interest in joining the team. In the end, I certainly didn't pack the library, but the meeting did bring in six new faces to the team: one senior, one sophomore, and four freshmen. Of them, four sounded like they are really likely to join. As my four remaining team members from last year are all supposed to graduate this year, it's good to have younger members interested in joining. Unfortunately, I will likely need to wait until next week to find out as class meetings have been scheduled during the lunches this week. Considering that Homecoming will take up a good amount of people's time next week, I really should have started all of this at least one week ago.
Still, I feel like we are going to have a good year this year. Clearly, we're still building the program, but the enthusiasm seems pretty high. I also hope that I have a better handle on the logistics and funding involved in getting our team to and from each of the tournaments. I'm also hoping to avoid sleeping on classroom floors for the overnights as it not only seriously affected me, I noted a clear difference in my team's performances too.
In the end, I will plan for what I can, but I will also try to enjoy the moments as they come along.
I truly had no idea what to expect for turnout. I hadn't been great about advertising the meeting, but I had also heard from multiple people that there were a number of students who had expressed their interest in joining the team. In the end, I certainly didn't pack the library, but the meeting did bring in six new faces to the team: one senior, one sophomore, and four freshmen. Of them, four sounded like they are really likely to join. As my four remaining team members from last year are all supposed to graduate this year, it's good to have younger members interested in joining. Unfortunately, I will likely need to wait until next week to find out as class meetings have been scheduled during the lunches this week. Considering that Homecoming will take up a good amount of people's time next week, I really should have started all of this at least one week ago.
Still, I feel like we are going to have a good year this year. Clearly, we're still building the program, but the enthusiasm seems pretty high. I also hope that I have a better handle on the logistics and funding involved in getting our team to and from each of the tournaments. I'm also hoping to avoid sleeping on classroom floors for the overnights as it not only seriously affected me, I noted a clear difference in my team's performances too.
In the end, I will plan for what I can, but I will also try to enjoy the moments as they come along.
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