Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Stacy Thomas (But Were Afraid to Ask)

Following a successful debate career in Arizona and a stint coaching in Illinois, Stacy Thomas settled down in Texas. Now the forensics director at the highly successful Hockaday School in Dallas, Thomas has helped debaters to outrounds at many prestigious competitions, including the TOC, Nationals, Greenhill, St. Mark’s, the Glenbrooks, Emory, Harvard, and Stanford. Her debaters compete successfully on the local circuit as well, frequently closing out competitions, including an unprecedented quarterfinals closeout at Westwood and a finals closeout of the UT-Austin Longhorn Classic. In 2004, five of her students advanced to elimination rounds at TFA State, and in 2003, she had a sophomore win UIL State.

Beyond her coaching accolades and her status as one the most frequently-serving judges in the country, Thomas is an inventive and engaging debate educator. She is also–pardon the editorialization–one of the kindest people in the activity. These qualities make this exclusive VBD interview a most overdue one.

Popularity: 1%

Session II Roll Call

SANTA MONICA, CA - In just over one week, Victory Briefs will be greeting approximately one hundred students at this summer’s installment of Session II.

“A different kind of debate camp for a different kind of debater,” Session II provides both a college-like setting to learn overarching philosophies, theories, and subjects and their relations to debate, as well as a highly intensive prep session on the upcoming September/October resolution. With a top lab taught by Josh Anderson and Sarah Smith, a novice program instructed by Mike Bietz, Jon Cruz, and Kristen Ray, incredible labs led by Stephen Babb, Tim Case, Chris Castillo, Seamus Donovan, Nathan Foell, Amanda Liverzani, John McKay, Daryl Pinto, and Max Stevens, and lectures by Ryan Hamilton, Victor Jih, and Michelin Massey, it should again prove to be an incredible two weeks.

Students should submit affirmative and negative cases from this past season’s January/February resolution to Michelin Massey immediately. These cases will be the basis of casing workshops and drills during the first week, as the September/October topic will be released in time for the second week of the program. (If you didn’t debate this topic, please submit cases from the topic you debated most last year.)

With that said, Victory Briefs would like to encourage Session II students to give a shout out here so we can formally begin our countdown!

Popularity: 1%

Two Tournaments in One Season, Announces ALJ Coach

CLARK, NJ - Bill Cooper, director of forensics at Arthur L. Johnson High School in New Jersey, has announced the dates of the program’s traditional two tournaments. The Arthur L. Johnson Fall Invitational will take place on November 5, 2004, while the Arthur L. Johnson Spring Tournament will take place on February 4, 2005. Both tournaments feature a full assortment of forensic activities. For more information, please contact Bill Cooper.

Popularity: 1%

Grapevine Classic Web Site Now Online

GRAPEVINE, TX - The official web site for the 17th Annual Grapevine Classic is now online. Registration will open on August 1st and the tournament will be held on September 9th and 10th. “Last year we had 75 schools from 8 states competing,” notes Jane Boyd. “We had the NFL, NCFL, TOC, and TFA champions competing in our pool of 120 in LD. The Policy and the Student Congress entries are just as competitive. We are a TOC bid in LD, CX and Student Congress. The competition will be great and we promise excellent judging for all styles. Take a minute to go to our site.”

Popularity: 1%

Crystallize: I’m Not Worthy

Welcome to today’s “Crystallize”! Each Sunday and Thursday, Jon Cruz will post a humorous image from the VBD backfiles and turn to you, dear readers, to provide original, creative, and mirthful (or even witty!) captions right in the comments. A selection for the first few installments has already been chosen, but if you have an image that’s just begging for exposure here on VBD, send it his way!

Popularity: 1%

React to…Robert Nozick

In the final installment of a series, coach Andy Charrier has posted one last link to a debate-related philosophy article and highlighted two areas of the article that he found interesting, but not included any commentary about what these areas mean. That’s your job! Simply put, he is asking you to read the article, and then…react. Given the diversity of thought within our community, this ought to be fun and educational.

Popularity: 1%

Session II Welcomes Amanda Liverzani

SANTA MONICA, CA - Victory Briefs is excited to announce that Amanda Liverzani will be joining us on staff in just over a week at Session II!

Liverzani debated for four years at the Meadows School in Nevada. The champion of ASU, she was first speaker at the Greenhill Round Robin, second speaker at the Valley Mid-America Cup, and was runner-up at the Victory Briefs Round Robin. She has consistently broken at national circuit tournaments including Alta, the Iowa Caucus, the UT, Blake, Greenhill, St. Mark’s, and the Glenbrooks. She is an alumna of VBI and was a lab leader with Andrew Garvin at this summer’s installment of VBI@UCLA. Liverzani will be attending Hampshire College in the fall.

Popularity: 1%