Ask Cruz: Volume XII — The Newark Debates Edition

NEW YORK, N.Y. — I’m going to break with my standard format here a bit — the four serious questions and one irreverent one — to present a Newark Debates-themed edition, as promised before the tournament began. The tournament, established in 1984, and the Newark Science program, founded in 1978, have long histories with many interesting associated tales. I’ve shared some of them below. The questions were posed on the schematics of each preliminary round.

As always, 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.

The first round schematic asked, “Who is the only person to win the Newark Debates three times? Bonus points for coach and school.”

Noah Grabowitz won the Newark Debates in 1998, 1999, and 2000. Noah debated for Hendrick Hudson High School and was coached by Jim Menick. Keep his third victory in mind, as it applies to a later question.

Interesting side note: Pete Myers won Manchester-by-the-Sea in 1999, 2000, and 2001. (Pete debated for Needham High School and was coached by both Mike Davis and P.J. Wexler.) I can’t think of any other TOC-qualifying tournaments that had three time champions, though St. Louis Park’s Catherine Tarsney — only a sophomore — is a two-time champion of the Iowa Caucus, and has two more to go. No pressure intended, of course…but that has the potential to be really, really intense.

The second round schematic asked, “This tournament was sometimes called “Project Pride/Newark Invitational.” What is/was Project Pride?”

Project Pride is a non-profit organization based in Newark dedicated to providing scholarships to and sponsoring activities for the youth of the city. For many years, the organization sponsored the debate circuit within the city.

The principal source of revenue for Project Pride — an organization with no paid employees, no paid staff, and no federal funds — has been the Pride Bowl, an annual charity football game aimed at raising money for scholarships and programs to benefit Newark students. Guest teams come in annually for the Bowl. For the many years in which the organization sponsored the Newark Debates, city banking institutions were also primary sponsors of Project Pride.

The third round schematic asked, “Ferrell Jean and Barbara Allen are two of the three Newark Science alumni to win the New Jersey State Championship in Lincoln-Douglas debate twice. Who was the other?”

Newark Science’s very own Jonathan Alston was a two-time New Jersey State Champion. He is now, of course, the team’s Lincoln-Douglas debate coach.

The fourth round schematic asked, “Only one school has ever closed out the Newark Debates in the semifinal round. What school, and in what year? Bonus points if you can name all four debaters.”

Hendrick Hudson closed out Newark in 2000. As noted above, Noah Grabowitz won the tournament three times; his third victory was as top seed in said close-out. The three other co-champions were Jon Wedrogowski, John Oliveri, and Scott Becker.

The fifth round schematic asked, “Being a Key Coach of the Barkley Forum is an exceedingly rare honor. Accordingly, very few debate programs have three Key Coaches of the Barkley Forum on staff. Taken collectively, the Newark Public Schools has three Key Coaches on staff. Who are they?

Jonathan Alston, Brent Farrand, and Les Phillips are all Key Coaches. (Interesting note: Farrand was Alston’s coach in high school.)

And, as a bonus, I’ll rhetorically ask, “Which past TOC Top Speakers were also champions of the Newark Debates?”

Bronx Science’s Jonathan Koppell, Hendrick Hudson’s Noah Grabowitz, and Berkeley Carroll’s Jacob Levi were the Newark champions in 1988, 2000, and 2006 respectively. They were each the recipient of the Walter Alan Ulrich Award at the Tournament of Champions.

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Jon Cruz acknowledges that Mira Chernick and Dan Chen are owed prizes, but reminds Akshay Agashe and Michael Boyle that they needed to be there to be eligible.

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