The Forgotten Second

Parli practice started in January. Lauren and I made the team along with our friends Avery, Trever, Brandon, Meagan, and our alternate, Chris. We practiced demonstrations most mornings before school, studied Robert's Rules of Order during our ag. classes, and practiced occasionally after school.

Beginning of April we had our first competition, Area. We placed 1st. Tipton placed 2nd. (Whew. One step closer to our goal.)

Mid-April was Districts. Again, we placed 1st. Tipton placed 2nd. We both advanced to State.

We had 2 weeks to prepare for State. By then we had added weekend practices.

Side Story: One weekend between Districts and State, two of the boys thought it would be funny to show up suuuper late for practice... they couldn't have been more wrong! They got a very stern lecture from Mr. Biddle and the cold shoulder from their 3 female teammates. (The wrath of Mr. Biddle probably hit them harder than our cold shoulders.)

Lauren and I were competitive and felt a weight on our shoulders to do well. We were concerned about how seriously the boys were in it to win it. (High school probs!)

Missouri State FFA Convention arrived. It was a rainy day. (Going back to our sibling's superstitions, this was great news! Each time they competed, some sort of force of nature had occurred, so we welcomed the rain.)

We made it through prelims and on to the Final 6. To ease our nerves in the waiting room before our final demonstration, the boys used the girls' heels as soccer balls. We think it threw off our competition. They sat nervously studying, looking at us like idiots, as we played soccer in the front of the room. (The girls' outlook had changed since the weeks leading up. By then we figured we knew all we could know!)

At some point, there was a loud crash of thunder that caused the entire building to shake. Our team squealed in excitement. Only adding to other teams thinking we were a bunch of bozos. Surely, this wasn't Eldon's team. They're known to be the best. (We later found out that thunder was actually an aftershock felt from an earthquake in Oklahoma.)

Our final demonstration ended. The wait began. (Parli is the only team that doesn't find out their placement until they are on stage in front of thousands of fellow FFA members during the evening session.)

While we waited, we ate lunch and discussed with Mr. Biddle how he thought we did and how we thought we did. The three concerns we had:

1. We were way under on time. There wasn't a minimum time to use, but we were afraid that meant we should have debated better.
2. We had forgotten to make a 2nd. We thought and hoped we had talked the judges into why that forgotten 2nd was indeed excusable. However, Meagan had, had a dream the night before that we placed 2nd (no Nationals for us). Therefore, we were certain that our forgotten 2nd was going to cause us to place 2nd.
3. Tipton, our rival since Area competition, whose advisor was Eldon alum, had told Mr. Biddle they performed their best demonstration they had ever done.

After a very long afternoon it was time to head backstage at the Hearnes Center. As we approached the stage, Mr. Biddle headed a different direction. Seeing our confusion of his abandonment, he said he was going to watch from the floor in front. (That's weird, but Biddle wasn't known for doing normal things.) The seven of us stood on stage in front of thousands of people. To each side of us were our competitors. The announcement started.

6th place... not us. 5th place... Chillicothe. 4th place... not us. Our anticipation grew.

The man in the normal looking suit... Tipton's advisor.

3rd place... Troy FFA. Whew. Okay, here's our fate. 2nd place it is.

2nd place... Tipton FFA.

I'm thankful for the graciousness Tipton's
advisor showed us.

Screams. Hugs. More screams. More hugs. A blur. 

I'm sure at some point they announced, "1st place, the 2008 State Champions, Eldon FFA!" But we were too busy partying on stage, like we had just won the Super Bowl, to hear. (Since that moment, I've witnessed numerous other Parli teams win State. Not a one of them celebrate like we did. I'm not sure if we should be proud of our very genuine, overjoyed reaction, or ashamed because we looked foolish.)

They ushered us off to the side of the stage for a picture. I was in a daze. The next thing I knew, this bear of a man was jumping on stage and embraced me from the side. It was Mr. Biddle, beaming a smile from ear-to-ear. (He had accidentally found out how we placed beforehand. Since he knew, he wanted to have a front row view of our reaction. Boy did we give him a good show!) 

The next moments were pure chaos. We were all busy calling our parents. Lauren and I were also calling our siblings. We had to get pictures taken for archives. In some ways it really did feel like we had just won the Super Bowl. 

By the time we won State, the 7 of us high schoolers had spent more time with Mr. Biddle than we had our own parents, from January to April. He trusted us. Even more importantly, we trusted him.

Lauren and I had changed our mindsets. We no longer wanted to win for our own glory. We wanted to win it for Biddle. We wanted to continue HIS legacy. HE had earned it. HE deserved it.

By the time our heads hit the pillow that night, we were elated. We were sending Mr. Biddle to Nationals once again.

*I'm really thankful Lauren's older sister was there to capture our winning moment.