Ask Cruz: Volume XIV

NEW YORK, N.Y. — So as previously noted, with the regular season winding down, I think I can turn back to answering the many questions that I’ve compiled from the comment boards, from my e-mails, and from casual, old-fashioned, in-person conversations. But that also requires you asking me a wealth of new questions. You can do so in the comments section here. Or, as also previously noted, you can e-mail me.

One of the most frequently-asked questions I get is: “When are new VBD interviews coming?” That’s a fair question. I’ve been negligent with my interviewing duties. I am, as noted earlier, finishing up two interviews — one with J.W. Patterson, one with Michelin Massey — which will be posted soon. Then I’m conducting a few new ones. I’ve already lined up, tentatively, interviews with Pam Cady Wycoff and Cherian Koshy. (The latter is trying to resist, but I won’t allow him to do so.) And more will follow.

But back to business.

Rebar Niemi asks, “How many 16th seeds (or last seeds) have gone on to win the TOC? What about TOC tournaments?”

To my knowledge, the sixteenth seed has never won the TOC.

On the other hand, the first seed has won the TOC at least five times: Vestavia’s Jason Baldwin won in ‘93, Vestavia’s Hetal Doshi won in ‘97, Valley’s Ari Simon won in ‘98, Millard West’s Jenn Larson won in ‘02, and David Wolfish won in ‘05. (In ‘99, Vestavia’s Ben Davison — the first seed — dropped in finals.)

Also of note, the winner of the Walter Alan Ulrich Award — the top speaker honors at the TOC — has downed in octas three times over the same time period: Noah Grabowitz in ‘00, Sehome’s Josh Anderson in ‘02, and Berkeley Carroll’s Jacob Levi in ‘06 were each defeated in the first outround. And, to add to that list, Miami Palmetto’s Alex Gomez didn’t clear in ‘98; neither did Miami Palmetto’s Satyan Gajwani in ‘03.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, there are a number of years in which we don’t yet have easy access to the seeding, but I plan to do an extended archeological dig during my upcoming stay in Kentucky.

But I’m getting off-topic. In the last ten years or so, the sixteenth seed has advanced out of octas only two times: College Prep’s Jon Cowperthwait made it to quarters in ‘00, and St. Louis Park’s Nick Tourville made it to the same outround just last year.

Over the last few years, I can think of two times where the bottom seed has won a TOC-qualifying tournament. But given my ancient age of twenty-four, I am sure that I am forgetting some obvious ones from the last few years, so please, dear readers, chime in.

This season, Bronx Science’s Saboor Sheerazi won the Newark Debates as the sixteenth seed.

Strake Jesuit’s Patrick Mahoney won Wake Forest as thirty-second seed, and as a junior, two years ago.

Jacob Levi, come to think of it, won as a junior and as thirty-first seed the year before. Actually, Wake Forest seems to have a long tradition of favoring the very low seeds in the elimination rounds. This season, Bronx Science’s Vineet Singal made it to semis as the thirty-second seed, and I believe Hendrick Hudson’s Noah Grabowitz made it to a late outround as thirty-second seed as a junior in ‘98.

Not quite the thirty-second seed, but thirty-first seed Jen Fluke of Eagan won Apple Valley in ‘03. And not quite the championship, but sixty-fourth seed Mira Chernick of Lexington made it to semis at Harvard last season. (And who did she defeat in the first outround? First seed Peter Damrosch of Berkeley Carroll, who made it to finals this year.)

Matt Ross asks, “Which school got the most TOC bids collectively in a single year?”

In recent history, and in Lincoln-Douglas debate, this would unquestionably be Scarsdale High School, which had twenty-four bids to its name last season. College Prep had a corps of six debaters qualify to the TOC in one year in the mid-nineties, but I’m not sure of the exact number of bids off the top of my head.

Jane Boyd asks, “What school had the most LD and CX elimination round participants at the TOC in the same year?”

As noted in Volume V, “the all-time record for the number of entries in the outrounds was in 1984, in policy debate. Bronx Science qualified five teams and cleared all five teams. The school’s top team, Stuart Rabin and Robert Schein, ended up not winning, but Stuart did win the top speaker honors.” These folks were coached by Richard B. Sodikow and David Glass.

Actually, I’m really only mentioning that here so Jim Menick and Michael Mangus can note with approval (or disapproval, perhaps) that I’ve met my quota of random-citations-of-Bronx-Science-accomplishments-that-predate-my-tenure-and-very-nearly-predate-my-year-of-birth for this column.

Anyway. That above mention is indeed impressive, but doesn’t take into account both Lincoln-Douglas debate and policy debate, because at that time, the TOC did not yet have Lincoln-Douglas debate. (More on the reasons for that in my forthcoming interview with J.W. Patterson.)

Jane knows the answer to this question. Grapevine High School cleared three Lincoln-Douglas debaters — Chad Bush, Paul Gravely, and Lindsay Jandal — into the elimination rounds at the ‘99 TOC. Grapevine also cleared a policy team: Michael Garemko and Omar Usman. This is, to my knowledge, an unprecedented feat. (I know it beats out Bronx Science’s two Lincoln-Douglas debaters and one policy team in 1988.)

And who was the coach of these intrepid Grapevine debaters? Jane Boyd.

Quinn Olivarez, “Has there been a year when juniors have won every octa-bid tournament of the year?”

I have been told by a number of folks that while there have been many cases in which junior classes have outperformed senior classes at major national tournaments, this year’s streak by the class of 2009 has been pretty much unprecedented. Berkeley finals featured a senior (Becca Traber of Kinkaid) and a sophomore (Matt Kawahara of Valley), but beyond that, the juniors would have had a clean sweep of the octas-bid tournaments. This season, twelve of the sixteen spots in octas-bid final rounds have been filled by juniors.

As noted before, there has only been one year — 1992 — in which two juniors were in the final round. Michael Erickson of La Cueva defeated Jason Baldwin of Vestavia Hills in finals. Will this year see the second junior-junior final round? Or, at least, the second time a junior wins the TOC? What do you think, dear readers? (I suppose I’m inciting class warfare of a different type than envisioned by Karl Marx.)

And, just for fun….

Sean Nadel asks, “To play ESPN analyst: if you had to call a TOC and Nationals champion right now who would you call?”

I won’t make that call in public, of course, but I’ll say this: over the last four years, I’ve guessed correctly beforehand, and I have witnesses.

Devin Race asks, “Is there some special significance to the picture that has replaced that rotating series of pictures as the banner at the top of VBD?”

This deep, probing question can be answered with one word: no. And, as you’ll note, the pictures are rotating again. The existence of a non-rotating picture was due to me not being able to find the proper directory in which to place banner pictures after the latest redesign of VBD. I’m sure Tim, Jacob, and Corbin didn’t mind seeing their smiling faces every time they logged on, though.

Matt Thomas asks, “Who is the biggest wannabe jock in debate?”

Given that Matt probably had a football under his arm while typing this question, that’s a pretty easy question to answer.

Chris Castillo asks, “Why doesn’t Jon Cruz have blonde highlights anymore?”

It is a matter of no small comfort that the number of people still active in debate who well remember said highlights is slowly dwindling.

Ken Hershey asks, “Is it just for the United States to use military force to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons by nations that pose a military threat? I will base most of my TOC prep around your answer, so answer wisely.”

War is never just, Ken. Well, maybe sometimes it is.

Jon Cruz would like to note that Les Phillips seriously doubts the veracity of Jane Boyd’s claim that Byron Arthur was the youngest coach ever inducted into the Barkley Forum Gold Key Society, a claim which can be found in the comments section of Volume XIII.

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