I was a varsity member of two high school teams, but back then you didn't wear a jacket showing off your Debate and Forensics letters.
Our teams were low profile, hardly noticeable beyond family, team members, and close friends.
Other than getting our picture in the yearbook the only acclaim came in Monday morning announcements after a successful weekend tournament or the rare occasion where the local paper did a story about an accomplishment.
Debate was done as teams. Ted and I argued for a proposal while Mike and Brian argued against proposals by a different team's affirmative duo.
My partner and I debated all three years of high school; we weren't state champions, but won our share and improved each year. Individually we did well as my teammates became a college professor, attorney, and county judge.
Debate taught me a lot. It required quick note-taking and quick thinking. It also prepared me for Forensics.
Forensics can refer to applying scientific knowledge to professional fields and in this context, speak to argumentative or rhetorical applications of speech.
As speech competition, there are multiple areas to contest from dramatic interpretation to extemporaneous speaking. That was my area. In extemp, speakers drew a card with a current events topic then had 30 minutes to prepare a 5 to 7 minute speech. The best extemp speakers spoke without notes.
I developed that technique junior year which was the first time I won the conference championship.
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The 1980 - 81 Craig High School Forensics team.
I'm in front row, far right. Yearbook photo |
While my speech mates practiced their pieces over and over, my preparation was reading the newspaper everyday and scouring through various news magazines to get familiar with many topics.
I enjoyed the challenge of developing a catchy introduction, remember my talking points, and bring the speech in for a landing before time was up.
The combination of Debate and Forensics left their mark on me, some lessons stuck.
While speech and forensics weren't considered sports, cross country qualified. My debate partner was on the cross country team and so were a number of varsity basketball players.
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The 1980 Craig Cross Country team.
Yearbook photo |
I joined the team senior year. Craig had a strong varsity team which routinely qualified for the state meet. My time was nowhere near the times registered by the guys on varsity, but there was room on junior varsity
and the C-squad.
It was a fun season. I enjoyed the competition because everybody ran. The slowest guys ran in the C-squad race, the jayvee runners ran next, then our two teams cheered and helped our varsity runners.
I liked to position myself on the course at the half-way point, then run from there to a spot less than a mile from the finish to update our runners with their position. "Go get 'em, you're in third." "Pick up that runner, finish strong!" The first five finishers out of six made the team's score, every position was crucial.
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| I'm in middle row, second from the right. |
My first race I was junior varsity. I struggled over the first two miles, but managed a sprint to the finish. I'll never forget what my coach said, "Mossner, you had too much left!"
In my only season of running I bounced from the low-end of the JV to the top of the C-squad. One race I was struggling with stomach cramps and slowed to a walk when a runner from a competing team encouraged me to finish. It was nice of him to do that, I ended up finishing ahead of him.
I loved the camaraderie of team. Each of us experienced the race personally instead of watching which meant we were all invested in the outcome.
My best run was on the Yahara Hills course on the east side of Madison after heavy rain which left large puddles around the course. I had cheap running shoes. Most runners had expensive Nikes or Saucony shoes running around the puddles while I charged through them. I was wet, dirty and wearing a big smile at the finish.
I didn't letter in Cross Country, but I liked it so much I planned on running track in the spring. A foot injury made that impossible. Instead I joined a small crew in a car which doubled as a press box. In addition to keeping track of coming events, I was occasionally announced to the athletes how much time they had left before their event.
It turned out I enjoyed announcing more than running. After college, I did play-by-play for high school football and basketball games on the radio in Southern Iowa. Many years late, I was a public address announcer for a variety of sports at Lutheran High School of Indianapolis.
It's not much of a sports resume, I suppose, perhaps it is more sports adjacent.
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