What does an ethics team do right after winning the national championship? Prepare for regionals.
In a strange scheduling twist, this year’s regional ethics competition was held in Missoula, Montana eight weeks after the national event in Texas. (The two events are independent.) The UW entered two teams in the regional competition, with members of the national team split between the two regional teams.
“The National Ethics Bowl was on a Friday,” says coach David Alexander.
“We flew home Saturday and started preparing for regionals on Sunday.”
He adds with a grin, “The students might not have appreciated that.”
Maybe not, but they understood the need to gear up quickly.
“It seemed like there was more pressure for us to do well in regionals, since
we’d won nationals,” says team member Cliff Borjeson. “There were
high expectations.”
The two UW teams came through, both advancing to the finals, where they had to compete against one another. That, all agree, was a bit strange.
“The two teams had practiced with each other,” says team member Sahar Manavi. “We had done a mock ethics bowl and had gone through every single case against each other, so we knew each other’s positions and where all the weak points were.”
The final result? A UW team won and a UW team was runner-up.
Who could ask for more?