Congrats! Class of 2009

Today we saw the graduation of five of our debaters.  

Juan Hernandez will be attending St. Mary's University in San Antonio next year.

Jackie Rios will be attending the University of Maine.

Crystal Williams will be attending Amherst College near Boston.

Feysel Abdulkaf will be attending St. Louis University in St. Louis.

Sarah Delgado will be attending and debating for the University of North Texas.  

While each of you had your varied degrees of success in the debate rounds you all left a memorable impact on the squad.  All of you demonstrated various degrees and forms of leadership. I look forward to seeing your continued growth.

Give back when you can and remember you have been given much and much is still expected.

Mr. G

Law Magnet Debate Awards - Part 1: Seniors

This past Friday the seniors gathered with friends and family to celebrate their four years at the Law Magnet and to recognize each other's accomplishments.

The Debate Team has traditionally only given out one award at this ceremony - The Order of the Gavel. This award commemorates the debater who most exemplified leadership and service. The award recognizes the principle of LEGACY - leaving behind a better place than when you arrived. While the award is not technically a "senior" award, it has only been awarded to a non-Senior once. This year we had another first - the award went to two debaters: Jackie Rios and Crystal Williams.

Jackie and Crystal played a critical role in working with the novice LD debaters this year. I had to lean on them more than I normally would because of my grad school schedule. They stepped up to the task by producing five (5) very competitive and successful NLD'rs. Each of the NLD'rs broke at least at one tournament and all debated on the varsity circuit by the end of the year. Thanks to the efforts of Jackie and Crystal, the future looks bright for the LD squad.

Congrats girls! and good luck at Maine and Amherst.

UIL Regionals

Z, the twins, Harvey, Jackie and Lucy all competed at the Regional UIL Spring Meet this past weekend.  While the results were not what we would have liked, we all had a good time.  We had a chance after all the competitions to visit the old Dr. Pepper Museum and eat old style ice cream (Blue Bell) and Dr. Pepper floats.

I am confident we will all be back next year with a larger crew.

NDCA Championships - Day 1

The Law Magnet's involvement in NDCA Championships got off to a bumpy start. Literally.

We met at Love Field Airport at 8:30AM, checked in all the luggage, including the tubs without any problems. We were not only on time, we were ahead of schedule. We all had time to grab a bite of breakfast before loading the plane. That's when things started to unravel.

Thanks to Stacey's efforts we all had boarding passes in the first group. We were all able to secure desired seats with each other. Shortly after receiving instructions on take off procedures, the pilot came on over the intercom and informed us a huge thunderstorm was moving in rapidly and that air traffic control had just placed all planes on HOLD at their gates. The storm hit and we waited. We sat in the plane for over an hour when were finally told the storm had sufficiently cleared. Again we were instructed on take off procedures when the pilot came on again and informed us that we were now on HOLD because FAA regulations restricted grounds crew from working during lightening. Another thirty minutes waiting in the hot plane.

Again we were instructed on take off procedures when the pilot came on for a third time. "I know this is getting old," he said, "but I regret to inform you that engine number two will not start." Now, I am thinking we are going to have to de-plane and find another plane and reboard without our original order. In other words we would get stuck sitting wherever. Nope. Instead, we are told to hold on and the plane mechanics would work on the engine. Nearly forty-five minutes later the pilots comes on again and says we are finally ready to go - IN THE SAME PLANE! We are going to fly the same plane that less than an hour before had a failed engine.

I began praying my Rosary. We made it to the run way and took off. Would we stay in the air? The entire flight to Amarillo was tortuous. Turbulence was unbelievable. The plane was being tossed back and forth. At one point the plane dropped what seemed like hundreds of feet. I was beginning to think twice about taking this trip. Finally, we arrived in Amarillo and picked up additional passengers en route to Vegas. The remainder of the flight was slightly turbulent, but clearer skies as we approached the Grand Canyon.

We DID make it safely to Las Vegas, allbeit nearly 4 hours late. We still made registration in time and cut some new arguments before lights out.