Medfield Community Team wins 5th Place in Destination Imagination Global Competition

  After taking first place in the Destination Imagination regional competition in March in their Mythology Mission challenge, then winning the state championship in Worcester in April, the Potts Medfield Community Team took fifth place at the "Globals" in Knoxville, Tenn., in May. 

The team is made up of Medfield residents Andrew Curran, Daniel Grove, Cristian Iverson, John Lamb, Eliot Nolan and Will Vietze, who went up against teams from 70 other countries including Canada, England, Chile, China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Poland, and Turkey.

Victory was particularly sweet this year because all six members of the team – who have been on the same DI team since seventh grade -- were high school seniors with four graduating from Medfield High School, one from St. Sebastian’s School, and one from Boston College High School.

Team member Cristian Iverson said the DI experience was unforgettable.

“Although the [global] tournament was more serious than anyone on my team had imagined, there was lots of fun to be had all over the campus [of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville],” said Iverson. “Being seniors worked out perfectly because we were able to take part in a Destination Imagination ‘graduation’ of sorts. The keynote speaker was even an astronaut, and his speech was both hilarious and inspirational. All the seniors in DI were able to walk up an outdoor stage in front of all our parents and receive a DI diploma -- a great close to my team's DI career.”

According to http://destinationimagination.org/, Destination ImagiNation is an educational program in which student teams solve open-ended Challenges and present their solutions at Tournaments. Teams are tested to think on their feet, work together and devise original solutions that satisfy the requirements of the Challenges. Participants gain more than just basic knowledge and skills, they learn to unleash their imaginations and take unique approaches to problem solving.

The Medfield Community Team specialized in the Mythology Mission, which requires putting together an improvised skit assigned by the judges that uses items pre-selected by the team and features one of six countries pre-selected by the team.

The Medfield team pre-selected a cable ties, a mop and an umbrella to be their materials.  They were assigned Russia as their country, and created an improvisational skit featuring Russia’s mythical creature Baba Yaga, a witch-like character that Slavic folklore says kidnaps and eats children.  http://masterrussian.net/f25/russian-folklore-fairy-tale-creatures-14745/

The team concocted an ‘Iron Chef’ kind of Pancake Cook-Off between a ‘Bobby Flay’ type (played by Iverson)  and Baba Yaga.  The team used the cable ties to build a harp on which Baba Yaga played music, the mop to stir the batter, and the umbrella as a ladle to pour the pancake batter on the griddle. 

Bobby Flay won the contest because Baba Yaga put children into her batter which made it taste badly.  When asked why she put children in her batter, she said she was lonely so Bobby Flay asked her to join his cooking team and they lived happily ever after. 

That skit won fifth place.

“They’re always funny, they’re always witty, and they’re quick on their feet,” said Team Manager Lissa Potts.  “They’re very talented.”

“Although it was way too early in the morning to be awake for high school seniors, I felt that the skit went well,” said Iverson. “At the same time though, I had no idea what to expect from the competition since I'd never been to Globals before, so for all I knew we could have lost horribly. Regardless, to be honest, I would've been happy if we didn't place well because I feel like we truly gave it our all.”

In addition to its Improv challenge and Surprise Instant Challenge, the team also participated in the DI High School and College Graduation ceremony and attended a dance for high school and college DI teams with a professional disc jockey.  http://www.globalfinals.org/

On Saturday, the Potts Medfield Community Team left before the final results were announced because team members had graduation activities at home.

“It took us 16 hours to get home because both of our planes broke down so they were sitting on the floor in Philadelphia [airport] and one of them got a text from a friend who looked up the results on line. He said ‘We’re number five’ and they started laughing and jumping up and down…They were ecstatic,” said Potts.

Iverson said he enjoyed his six years with Destination Imagination and he strongly encourages students to give it a try.

“I highly suggest that everyone try DI at least once,” he said. “It was a great experience that I'll surely remember for the rest of my life, even if I had never made it to Globals.”

The team had to raise money for airfare, rental car, lodging at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville dormitories, and additional fees, and did so by holding several fundraisers including a raffle and a silent auction at the Zullo Gallery.

“Once they won the state championship in Worcester, we had to hustle to plan some activities…Everyone was so  supportive,” said Potts, noting the team was fundraising while preparing for proms, high school graduations, and finalizing plans for college. “We only had five weeks to raise $7,500; the kids are required to fundraise – the parents can’t write a giant check."