Chapter 88: State of Success

Saturday, April 24, 1982

IHOP again. I know; we’re boring. IHOP is a good place to take a giant pack of high school kids looking for a good start to a day of competition, though. Certainly worked for us.

By 10am we were competing. I wrapped up prelims feeling good about my chances. Most of the team did. Of course some of us would wind up disappointed. Well, that, or Meg would be up for Coach of the Decade.

It was a big step from last year, where I’d felt good, but just being there was the goal. Now, the goal was to break and do well in elimination rounds.

I think we all held our breaths when Cammie went to check the postings. Mikayla went with her, checking the Drama side; I’d find out their results later.

One important note on understanding breaks here: State broke to octofinals, not quarterfinals. That meant twice as many broke, and four rounds instead of three. It also meant we’d go late, but more people could say they broke at State.

When she returned, she had a smile on her face. One that I didn’t think was ironic.

“We did just fine, people! In Extemp: me, Steve, Amit, Angie, Callie, Anne, Megan, Sue, Bree, and Gene.”

Holy cow! Seriously? At State? Ten?! Even with octos, that’s awesome!

“In LD: Kenzie, Callie, and Brad.”

No question; LD was our weakness. We needed new blood. Though, Doug was fine; he was just a freshman. He’d grow. Janice might, too.

“In CX: Steve and me! Janet and Lizzie! Megan and Anne! Angie and Gene! Sue and Amit!”

Holy cow once again! Five of sixteen? Are you kidding me? At State?! I felt bad for May and Emmy, who’d broken last year, and for Zoe and Adam, who I thought might well pack it in, but still. Damn! We had a shot at an all-Memorial semis. At State!

Meg spoke up. “Y’all are amazing! Just amazing! As I said before, I couldn’t be prouder of all of you, and that means whether you’re still competing or whether you’re done with this tournament. Proud of each and every one of you!”

Many, many hugs were exchanged. No other school was even close to our participation in octos. We’d gotten the shot. Now, all we had to do was meet the challenge.

Drama’s report was similarly awesome: Jasmine was still in. So were Lexi and Sheila. And Mikayla. And Paige. And Caitlyn, Debra, and Bob. And Lexi and Jasmine, and Sam and Penny, in Duo.

My octos extemp round was ... well ... blah. I thought I did ... fine. Least good round of the tournament at the worst time, but I also thought it was ... fine. Maybe good enough.

CX, on the other hand ... well, judges are judges. But, if we didn’t win, we were robbed.

Back at the table, a lot of people felt confident. A lot. I figured some would be disappointed.

Cammie had the news about 3:30. “Some disappointments but we are still really rolling! Extemp: me, Steve, Amit, Angie, Callie, Megan, Sue, Bree.

“LD: Kenzie, Callie, and Brad!

“CX: Steve and me, Lizzie and Janet, Megan and Anne, Angie and Gene!”

Quick math told me we’d lost two in Extemp, none in LD, one in CX. Not bad at all. Four of eight in CX quarters were Memorial!

Drama again was holding up their side. Jasmine, Lexi, Mikayla, Paige, and Debra in individual events, Lexi and Jasmine and Sam and Penny in Duo. I met Jasmine in a big hug and kiss. Lexi and Mikayla insisted on smaller hugs and kisses. So did Paige.

Bree met me with a hug. “I can’t believe it! I am so grateful for your pep talk back in December.”

“I can believe it. And, I did the easy part. You did the hard part: taking a chance on trying things. I’m thrilled that you’re doing so well!”

“Thanks! In November I thought I’d made a big mistake and, even in February, I really didn’t know if this was for me. But it is! Mom and dad will be thrilled, too!”

“Happy parents are a good thing!”

“I never told you, by the way, but I made a late application to the UT summer program. I think I’ll get in.”

“Gene will be there.”

She nodded. “I know. It’s mostly CX-oriented, but I might, next year, if I can find a good partner.”

“I hope you can!”

Things got tougher, but Extemp felt better, and CX ... well ... it could go either way on the judge’s ballot but, in my opinion, we won. I waited, pretending to do homework, until we had results.

At 6pm. Cammie had the news. “Second to last time I do this, this year, people. Listen up! Extemp: me! Steve, Amit, Angie, Megan, and, believe it or don’t, Bree!”

Holy cow! Bree! Last chance tournament to semis at State! I knew she could kick butt!

“LD: Callie and Brad. Half the best extempers in Texas, y’all!”

We cheered. Quantity, lacking. Quality, solid!

“CX: Again with Steve and me. And Lizzie and Janet.”

Well, that ended Gene’s State. And Sue’s. Not bad, and Angie was still in! Better than my first year. Callie and Kenzie hugged; I felt a little sorry for Kenzie, but I knew she was more thrilled for her twin than she was down about herself.

On the Drama side Jasmine, Mikayla, and Paige were left in individual events, Sam and Penny in Duo. More hugs and kisses ensued. If we could’ve snuck off, we might well have. Winning is intoxicating.

Meg and Steffie were both cheering us on, but they’d both used up a lot of superlatives by this point.

Semis. Everyone is good. Everything is tough. I think I did well in Extemp but, likely, so did seven other people.

In CX, we had two guys from Bellaire. Sharp. Polished. Knew their stuff.

I thought we had them.

8:45pm. Cammie came forward. “Okay. The going got tough, the tough got going. Extemp. Finals! Me, Amit, Steve.

“LD, and, definitely going to Nationals ... Callie!”

There was a considerable cheer.

“And, last, CX, and definitely going to Nationals ... Lizzie and Janet!”

Damn. Can’t win ‘em all. I really thought we had those Bellaire guys. Next year, we would.

Drama had whittled down to Jasmine in Humorous and Paige in Dramatic. Steffie gave them both hugs and cheered them both on.

Meanwhile, Meg was almost beside herself. “I thought I was doing well to get one student to Nationals. Now, three, and perhaps as many as five!” She was crying as she said it. “You all mean so much to me!”

Everyone gave her a hug. All these hugs between teachers and students would’ve perhaps been problematic in 2021, but this was now, and I was happy about it.

Cammie and I hugged. “So close!” she said.

“Still got Extemp.”

“Amit. The rest of us, I don’t know.”

“Ditto. We’ve already got Callie and Lizzie and Janet. Fitting that it’s three girls so far.”

“Girls rule!”

I liked my Extemp round. Seven other people probably did, too. I watched Janet and Lizzie. Anything but a win would be highway robbery.

So, two years in a row, we were there to the bitter end. Mind you: in the events Memorial competed in — Extemp, CD, LD, Humorous, Dramatic, and Duo — fourteen people, at most, would go to Nationals. We already knew we had three.

“In Extemp, in fourth, from Houston Memorial: Cammie Clarke! Third: Steve Marshall, also Memorial, and second, still Memorial, Amit Kothari. First, Dave Beckett, Bellaire!”

One more for Nationals. Go Amit!

“In LD, second place, Suzanna Bryant, Bryan High. First place, Callie Greene, Houston Memorial.

“And, in CX, second place, Mason/Bell of Bellaire. First place, Collins/Vinton of Houston Memorial.”

Damn. First, First, and Second. Not one, but four Memorial kids at Nationals. I just knew that Ted Seiler would smile as big as anyone at the news.

The Drama results were ... well, no one went to Nationals. Damn. Three thirds and a fourth. Nothing to be ashamed of at all.

We finished the day as we’d spend so much of it, hugging each other and bouncing around. Two more years, and hopefully we had higher highs to reach, but this was now, and most of us were aware that we should savor the moment.

Jasmine hopped into my lap on the bus ride. Steffie spoke first, praising her kids. That was probably the better order, with their solid-but-not-amazing results and our exceptional results.

Meg spoke next. “I just ... cannot ... possibly ... say enough about how proud I am of all of you. There’s Janet and Lizzie and Callie and Amit, of course, but ... all of you. Every one of you. This has been an amazing year, and we’re not done! Seniors, thank you for all the time and effort you’ve put in and I know you’ll go on to do great things. Everyone else — I hope you’ll be back next year, I truly do. We are the envy of the state right now and there’s no reason at all we can’t go right on with that. It’s a privilege to be your coach; you make me look good!

“Now, just a bit of updating. Tomorrow you get to sleep late; we’re not doing a museum or the like this time. We’ll be back mid-afternoon. So that covers the rest of this trip. Looking forward well into the future, Steffie and I have been talking and we’re going to plan some sort of out-of-state tournament next year.”

There was considerable applause.

“We don’t know where, and it’ll probably either be late fall or early spring. Not New Orleans; we all loved that, but we want to try new things. Maybe we’ll go back to New Orleans later. Now, that means one less tournament to qualify at, so you’ll just have to be ready to hit the ground running in the fall! In any case, we wanted to let you know now so that you can break the news to your parents that there will likely be airplane tickets and hotel fees to contend with next year. No one has to go, of course; there’ll be a local option that weekend. But we hope you will!”

We all cheered for Meg, and for Steffie, too.