Ask Cruz: Volume II

NEW YORK, N.Y. — WOW! I received a lot of debate trivia questions, and, being the unashamed nerd I am, I’ve gone to work answering them. (I’m both strangely proud and understandably embarrassed that I knew the answers to the majority of them off the top of my head.)

I’m going to make this a twice-weekly installment. It will appear on Mondays and Wednesdays. I have answered a few of the questions submitted — via comments, via IM, and via e-mail — and will answer more of them in the next installment.

You can post further queries regarding debate trivia right here on VBD, and I’ll select a few to answer in my next installment. Alternatively, you can e-mail me directly.

Quinn Olivarez asks, “What is the record number of bids a single student has held?”

Nadir Joshua of Newark Science High School is generally recognized as the all-time bid leader with eleven bids. He lost on a 3-0 decision in the semifinals to Valley High School’s Ari Simon, who went on to win the tournament on a 5-0 decision against St. James School’s Anna Manasco.

While his bids were earned throughout the country, the titles Nadir earned his senior year were all in his home region. He won the Malcolm A. Bump Memorial Tournament (Hendrick Hudson), the Lexington Winter Invitational, the Manchester-by-the-Sea, the Goldback Diversion (Newburgh Free Academy), and the Princeton Classic. (Outside the Northeast, he also placed second at the Stanford Round Robin and was in late outrounds at such tournaments as Emory, St. Mark’s, and Wake Forest.)

Stephen Lurie asks, “Has there ever been a LD debater that has won NFL Nationals and the TOC in the same year? Also, has there ever been someone to win NFL nationals in one event (say LD) and also win the TOC in a different event ([say] CX)?”

To answer your first question, no. Vestavia Hills High School’s Claire Carman came close, though. She was defeated in the final round of the 1994 Tournament of Champions by Palo Alto’s Ann Miura, but came back several weeks later to be crowned the 1994 National Champion.

Two other debaters came very close recently. David Wolfish of Greenhill won the 2005 TOC and placed third at Nationals. Douglas Jeffers of Dulles was the 2006 National Champion and was a semifinalist at the TOC.

To answer your second question, yes. Bronx Science’s Jonathan Koppell won the 1988 TOC in a close-out with his teammate, Peter Colavito. A few weeks later, he won the National Championship in Student Congress (House of Representatives). He is the only Lincoln-Douglas TOC champion to win Nationals in a different event.

Daniel Khalessi asks, “Can multiple debaters from different teams opt to closeout a TOC bid tournament and become “co-champions?” If so, have there been any recent tournaments in which this has occurred?”

Answer: read VBD more!

Real answer: yes, this does sometimes happen, and has happened recently. The finalists at the Tim Averill Invitational, hosted by Manchester Essex Regional High School, opted not to hold the round this season and were instead declared co-champions. They were Millburn High School’s Tess McNulty Sacred Heart High School’s Shadman Zaman.

The Bump Tournament at Hendrick Hudson High School faces time constraints in terms of when rooms are available, so it generally does not hold a final round — the finalists are declared co-champions — unless the tournament would end at a time that allows the round. (This is known going into the tournament, I should add, and both trophies read “Finalist.”)

Last season, Alta ended in semifinals and all four semifinalists were acknowledged as co-champions. The Lexington Winter Invitational in 2004 ended with Hendrick Hudson’s Justin Becker and Syosset’s Matt Scarola being declared co-champions.

Just to name a small few.

David McNeil asks, in regards to the TOC, “I’m assuming there’s never been a closeout, but what’s the closest any team has come to achieving this feat?”

Your initial assumption is incorrect. As noted above, Jonathan Koppell and Peter Colavito of the Bronx High School of Science closed out the TOC in 1988. Bronx Science remains the only team ever to claim this accomplishment. Bietz is right that I get a tingly feeling in my fingers when I type that, although, for the sake of full disclosure, I should admit that I was just entering elementary school when this momentous event happened.

The TOC close-out was the culimination of an extremely successful senior year for both debaters. Jonathan was a finalist at the MBA Round Robin and champion of the Iowa Caucus; among Peter’s accomplishments were victories at Wake Forest and Hendrick Hudson. Jonathan was the top speaker at the TOC when they closed out. (He was second speaker as a junior.)

Mountain View and Edmond North were both a ballot away from a close-out in 2006 and 2000, respectively. Stephen Hess was the TOC champion in 2006; Prashant Rai was a semifinalist. Seamus Donovan was the TOC champion in 2000; Nathan Foell was a semifinalist. In 2001, Westwood nearly closed out the TOC. Joey Seiler lost in semifinals on a 3-0 decision; Tommy Clancy was defeated in finals on a 3-2 decision. It is my understanding that Regis was very close to a close-out in the late 1980s or early 1990s, but I am still trying to compile complete results from those years.

Rebar Niemi asks, “What was the original amount of prep time given by the NFL when LD was invented?”

Three minutes. As most know, the National Forensic League changed this to four minutes last season.

Speaking of time limits in rounds, it’s interesting to note that as as early as August of 1988, an NFL committee proposed experimenting with altering the length of the 1AR. One proposal suggested transferring a minute from the constructive to the 1AR; another proposal suggested transferring a minute from the 2AR to the 1AR. The committee passed a recommendation suggesting a two-year experiment period “within regions in local leagues and at invitational tournaments and the second year by NFL, nationally.”

Joseph Gazzola asks, “Who is Kaiser?”

The Kaiser is the annual tournament held by Monticello High School in New York; the full name of the tournament is the “Dr. Robert J. Kaiser Debate Invitational.” This year, the tournament celebrated its twentieth anniversary. Kaiser, who is still alive and well — despite Jim Menick erroneously calling the tournament the “Kaiser Memorial” on the first round pairings this year! — is the namesake of the adjacent middle school. The tournament has often been held partially in the middle school and Kaiser was a long supporter of the activity.

I think “The Kaiser” is one of the more intense debate tournament names, by the way.

Sean Nadel asks, “Jon, where did you debate and which accomplishment are you most proud of as a debater?”

I do sometimes get asked this. I competed for four years at Great Neck South High School in New York. I debated exclusively on my local circuit — the Long Island Forensic Association — not counting competition at Harvard and Yale my senior year. These were, actually, the first out-of-state tournaments my team had ever attended. We didn’t think of them as “bid tournaments,” but as overnight tournaments, since the only other overnight tournament on our schedule was the NYSFL State Tournament.

So, in terms of bid tournament accomplishments, I was very proud to have earned a top ten speaker award at Harvard, given both how very limited my experience at larger tournaments was and how very large the field was. Locally, I competed a great deal with a fair amount of success, and probably my proudest achievement at the time was qualifying to the State Tournament my senior year in four different events: Lincoln-Douglas debate, extemporaneous speaking, Student Congress, and…Duo Interpretation!

—
Jon Cruz placed fifth in extemporaneous speaking at the New York City-Long Island Interleague Tournament his sophomore year and still has the trophy, even though the word “forensics” is misspelled “foirensics.” And, despite requests by Chris Castillo, he withholds comments on his former blonde highlights.

Popularity: 2%

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 7:45 am and is filed under Ask Cruz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.