Me, the debate coach?

I don't consider myself as an internet junkie but I do have the capacity to sit in-front of the monitor for hours on end watching ridiculous YouTube videos. In fact, it's one of the few perks of life I miss the most since living in Indonesia for the past 6 months. It's not that I can't get on the YouTube website; of course I can still enjoy the demonstrations of Mentos & Diet Coke home-made projectile or other intellectually-enlightening videos--only if I'm willing to wait an eternity for the videos to upload. Okay, I realize that the YouTube excuse for a faster broadband connection is pretty selfish but here's a more nobler reason.

Right now I'm the process of downloading a video of the American high school debate competition, and so far I have been waiting for over three hours with the download only 55 percent completed (the file size is about 125MB). Oh, did I mention that I am now the de facto debate coach for both the boys' and girls' teams? Mind you that I have no clue whatsoever when it comes to competitive debate. The extent of my debating experience is only limited to coffeeshops and graduate seminars. I couldn't tell the debate's Australian Parliamentary rules from a kangaroo's behind. My only advantage is research skills, which comes as a part of being a graduate student. Also, since I'm by nature an argumentative type of person (or the defensive type, according to some people), I can come up with pretty decent arguments for any topics on any sides of the debates especially politics. Since debate topics usually revolve around politics, it is obviously right up my alley. Having the academic background in social science helps a lot also.

Now the problem with researching the topics (or motions, in debate parlance) is the lack of resources here in Kalimantan. The public library is woefully stocked and it's very hard to do research on anything beyond local interests. The best place for research is of course the internet but the connection is excruciatingly slow. A Wikipedia page takes eons to appear. Okay, I can almost hear the snickers from the academic snobs out there, "you call Wikipedia an intellectually-realiable source?" While I would never list Wikipedia as part of my bibliography, I still think that it can serve as a primer for variety of topics out there. It shouldn't be the end in itself but only to be used as a springboard to more credible and academically-rigorous sources.

My boys' team has asked me to set up a practice debate with the girls' team, mostly as an excuse to go to the girls' school and check out the girls. These are boys in an Islamic boarding school and they're lucky if they get to socialize with the fairer sex once a year. Of course I agreed to this proposition but I honestly told the boys that they're going to get their asses kicked because the girls are so much better than them. They said that they don't care and one of the boys actually has a crush on the best debater on the girls' team, who happens also to be my favorite student. Hence the ulterior motive on wanting to get pussywhipped. Anyway, this is all a new experience for me--coaching the debate team, that is--and there is still a steep learning curve to climb. The sub-regional competition will be held in three weeks and I cannot wait to go.