First BEST Tournament

I wanted to write this post before the excitement and adrenaline of our first BEST tournament wears off.

First of all, I want to thank all of the donors who gave money for our team. This trip was expensive for us because we had to rent a charter bus as well as stay two nights in the hotel, as Bulgaria has a really strict law where buses cannot carry students when the sun is not out. Daylight savings time did not work in our favor for this trip, and there is a huge mountain range between Blagoevgrad and Stara Zagora which makes public transport (e.g. train) difficult and slow, as we would have had to go through Sofia, adding another night to our trip. We could not have made it to the tournament without your help.

The tournament's opening ceremony started at 11, and the first round started at 11:30. We showed up at approximately 11:31. We threw our bags into the luggage room of the school (great idea, BEST folks!) and I tried desperately to help my students find the correct rooms. I was then whisked away to "judges training" so I felt fairly helpless knowing that my students were in round 1.

One of BEST's rules is that judges cannot judge an event in which someone from their school is participating, obviously to prevent bias. Because Blagoevgrad had so many students in the tournament, nearly every room for every event had some of my students in them, so I was free to wander around and watch my kids (some of whom were mad at my appearance...Viktor and his "Tell-Tale Heart" made that clear, but he still killed it, no pun intended).

I had no idea how my students would perform, as this was my first tournament. But man, they showed up with their A-game. When the results for semifinalists were posted, we had around half of the total slots (and 3 out of 4 of the semifinal debate teams).

I did get to judge a few debates from other schools, which were fascinating. Watching students debate in a foreign language is incredible. I could not have done what they do...in English. Most of the debate topics are announced weeks prior to the tournament (but not which side you're on), but there are also 2 impromptu rounds. The impromptu round that I judged was "This house believes that people are not born equal." There were fascinating scientific and philosophical arguments from both sides.

The final day was incredibly exciting. I got to watch all of my kids who were in the final rounds. The final debate (held in a beautiful auditorium) was between two debate teams from Blagoevgrad who had researched and prepared together. It was amazing to watch them debate like enemies and then hug afterwards. It reminded me of watching the prosecutors and defenders at the District Court in DC talk candidly after a trial.

This House believes that counter immigration measures are regrettable: proposition (government) on the left and the opposition on the left. Blagoevgrad vs. Blagoevgrad throwdown. Both teams did amazing. I'm glad I didn't have to judge the winner. 

The closing ceremony was a rush of emotion and adrenaline. For this tournament, BEST decided to combine the novice (8th and 9th grade) with the varsity (10th-12th), which had a lot of my novice kids in panic mode. However, we had several students who won the "Best Novice" award. They were so thrilled. In fact, out of 5 events, my students won 4 of the "best novice" awards. Imagine being an 8th grader, just starting to learn English in a high school context, and competing against 12th graders. They stepped up to the plate. 

Besides the overall win, I had two favorite moments. The first was watching one of my students who competed in oratory. A week ago she was so frightened at the idea of participating that she considered dropping out. To hear her name called for "Best Novice" was unbelievable. I am not an easily excitable guy, but I actually screamed at the top of my lungs for her. 

The other favorite moment was watching two of my 10th graders win the duo finals. These students sent me their script of West Side Story back in September (first week of school!) and had worked tirelessly since then. After their final, they were worried that they didn't do well. Seeing them win the overall award was absolutely a highlight. I think this photo of their reaction sums it up well. 

Pure joy on the left from West Side Story duo: congrats, guys! 

Of course, winning overall was incredibly exciting, despite the fact that I was in the far corner of the auditorium and assumed that the whole team would go up to pick up the award. Turns out, they just wanted the coach to go up. So I had to wade my way down to the front. My students started chanting "Alex! Alex!" which made me blush just like I would do when people used to sing "Happy Birthday" to me as a kid. The thing is, they should have been cheering for themselves. They did all the work. I was a facilitator of their work. I didn't have to stand up in front of a crowd and give a speech/debate in a foreign language. Sure, I dedicated a lot of time to practices, but so did the students. If I think back to high school, I cannot imagine showing up to school 2.5 hours early to work on a speech. My students truly should have cheered for themselves. We did it together.

All in all, I was immensely impressed with BEST as a whole. The tournament was well-run, and the atmosphere was more like a community as opposed to a group of competitors. I think it's so brave of the students (from all schools) to sign up to compete in these English events, so it's only right that the students support each other. Sure, they want to win, but they also understand the broader meaning of the organization and the tournament. 

When I came here to Bulgaria, I knew that I was filling big shoes in that the former coach had worked with these kids for three years and knew the ins-and-outs of the organization (she helped found it). I had been so fearful that we would not perform well, and that I would take it personally as a sign of my own failure. Yes, winning the tournament did help validate that somewhat, but I think that even if we'd not won, I would still feel proud of the team (and myself) for competing in the tournament. 

The icing on the cake was returning from the tournament this morning around 11 (we had to leave Stara Zagora when the sun rose) and heading to the school director's office with the other chaperones. The principal handed us some chocolate and let us know that we were excused from school for the day if we'd like. We took her up on that offer. It was a long weekend of early mornings, long days, and celebratory nights (with no students breaking any rules *claps*). 

I got home to Smokey, who gave me a quick meow and then jumped up on my lap in the middle of the hallway. I was scared to leave him alone after only getting him a week ago, but Mark from AUBG was kind enough to check up on him everyday. 

I'm looking forward to a few weeks of relaxation (i.e. not 2.5 hours of practice before school every day). And I just reserved a room in Plovdiv for a Fulbright Thanksgiving. Things are looking up! 

Шампиони!