Destination Imagination

Modesto High School competes in a DI challenge at the regional tournament.

It was the day of the Region One tournament. Jenifer Gill’s Destination Imagination team stood in front of their appraisers, the last ten minutes of panicked improvisation finally coming to fruition. Gill was silent, forbidden from communicating with her ‘boys’ – it was all up to them now.
Suddenly, one teammate, “Jack,” turned to Gill, his eyes wide. “I’m gonna be sick!” he cried, and ran out of the room, right in the middle of his team’s performance. Gill followed him, concerned.
Jack turned away, vomited into the bushes, and, freshly sick, looked back to Gill. “Gotta go back in!” he said to her, and returned to the Instant Challenge room, to perform beside his team.
That was Team Manager Gill’s “most memorable moment.”
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Destination Imagination is a competitive program
in which teams of students, along with the help of an adult team manager, work together to creatively solve challenges.
The Main Challenge is at the heart of DI, and is a complicated task to be completed by the team over the course of several months. These solutions are then presented at tournaments, in front of appraisers, or special judges.
The Instant Challenge, which Gill remembers so vividly, is the other main event that DI teams participate in. Teams are given ten minutes to complete a miniature version of a Main Challenge, usually with strictly limited materials. Instant Challenges test a team’s ability to think on their feet and are often intense and frustrating.
Tournaments are held at the regional, state and global level. Of the 47 teams from Region One, which encompasses the Sacramento area, 19 of them are from the Eureka Union School District.
GBHS is home to plenty of DI alumni.
“I was very inexperienced,” GBHS senior Scott Furlow said regarding his first trip to the global DI tournament.
Furlow and his team held bake sales to raise money for the expensive trip to the global tournament in Tennessee.
“I remember getting fat (on) lots of cookies,” Furlow said.
GBHS freshman Mattie Salinas also recalls her DI experiences and the excitement of her first victory at regional tournament.
“I remember we all screamed like little kids,” Salinas said. “We went out to ice cream afterwards. I would love to go back to that time.”
But the triumph of the tournament is offset by months of tiresome work and stressful meetings.
“It can be extremely time consuming,” Gill said, “and there is such a breadth of things you can get involved in at the high school level. Kids are trying all sorts of new things, all the time.”
“DI goes all the way up to university level, but it’s mainly a grade school thing,” Furlow said. “It’s really hard to find a team in high school.”
High school academics are much more rigorous than those of middle school, which could explain the shortage of high school DI teams.
Though GBHS presently lacks its own team, it does have a DI Club.
“I started the club this year as a way to get some DI Alumni involved again, as well as introduce some new people to the program,” said GBHS senior Courtney Dale, DI Club president and five-year DI veteran.
The club runs practice Instant Challenges, offers advice to younger teams and helps with fundraising, Dale said.
Though presently the GBHS DI club has no plans to form a team, Dale said that she would want to rejoin one, if not for scheduling conflicts.
So, if DI is so much work, why is it so beloved?
“You can learn so much from it,” Salinas said. “Plus, you make some great friends along the way.”
“ It’s a great program,” Furlow said. “Colleges like seeing that on applications, and it’s a blast.”