Ask Cruz XXII — Champions Edition, Part I

NEW YORK, N.Y. — After a very long hiatus — and after several fits and starts — “Ask Cruz” returns as a regular feature here on Victory Briefs Daily. I’ve missed the opportunity to answer your questions, and I hope you’ll send some my way.

In each installment of “Ask Cruz,” I answer questions about debate trivia. You may post your questions in the comments section, or you may shoot me an e-mail. It’s been a while, but I’m back in gear to do a regular column, so please do submit those questions.

Marc Wallach asks, “When was the last time a person who did not clear at the TOC win the National Championship?”

This year’s National Champion, Shivani Vohra, is the first National Champion since Adam Chilton in 2003 to win Nationals while not clearing at the TOC the same year. However, Shivani did clear as a junior. Interestingly, at the TOC as a junior, she was defeated by Trinity Prep’s Jake Nebel in the octafinals, whom she defeated in finals this year at Nationals.

Danny Prikazsky asks, “Which person has had the best performance at TOC and Nationals across events?”

Bellarmine’s Will Rafey was runner-up this year in policy debate at the TOC — with partner Sagar Vijay — and also runner-up at Nationals in International Extemporaneous Speaking, demonstrating a rather incredible range of rhetorical and analytical skills.

The only more impressive performance across events that comes to mind was in 1988; Jonathan Koppell of Bronx Science closed out the TOC with teammate Peter Colavito, and won Student Congress (House of Representatives) at Nationals that June.

Daniel Fabrizio asks, “Seven Lincoln-Douglas debaters from Walt Whitman attended the TOC this year. Is this the all-time record?”

Scarsdale High School holds the all-time record, having qualified an incredible nine debaters to the 2007 Tournament of Champions: Matt Aks, Neil Basu, Andrew Harris, Ken Hershey, Nikita Lalwani, Marcus Moretti, Matt Salant, Kyle Tatz, and Adrevan Yaghoubi. I’ve told this anecdote before, but I can’t help telling it again: Joe Vaughan referred to this as his “baseball team,” but I, being illiterate in all matters sports-related, didn’t really get it. He kindly explained the reference before I even indicated that I didn’t get it. (I’m quoting this verbatim from an old “Ask Cruz” because even I laugh when reading it.) Congratulations to all nine debaters, and to coach Joe Vaughan!

Walt Whitman High School’s enormous delegation of seven Lincoln-Douglas debaters — Perry Green, Jane Kessner, Ben Lewis, Emily Massey, Ellen Noble, Stefanie Rohde, David Winer — makes for the second-largest number of Lincoln-Douglas debaters qualified in a single season. Congratulations to all seven Walt Whitman debaters, and to coach Anjan Choudhury, as well as Stephanie Caravias, Tanya Choudhury, Elyse Lyons, and Todd Liipfert!

Only one other school has ever qualified seven debaters in a single season: Regis High School. In fact, Regis did it twice. Prior to Scarsdale, Regis held the all-time record thanks to its season-long performance in both 1991 and 1994.

In 1991, Regis qualified Kramer Campen, Vijay Culas, Bill Harrington, Thomas Downey, John Kulvicki, Timothy O’Reilly, and Christopher Timmel. This was matched in 1994, when Regis qualified Rob Alcala, Steve Boykewich, Dave Czuchdewski, Brian FitzGerald, John Kuhner, Andy Murray, and Michael Sclafani. Congratulations to both sets of debaters and to coach Eric Di Michele!

“Chris Theis, who won last year as a junior, won the TOC this year as well. Have any other juniors won the TOC? Did they go on to win it a second time?”

As most of our readers know, Chris Theis is the first Lincoln-Douglas debater ever to win the National High School Tournament of Champions twice.

Chris became only the second junior ever to win the TOC when he claimed the title last year. Previously, Michael Erickson of La Cueva High School was the only junior TOC champion. He won in 1992, defeating fellow junior Jason Baldwin of Vestavia Hills High School. Baldwin, of course, returned to win the tournament in ‘93. (Erickson cleared as a senior, but dropped in the octafinal round.)

Josh Vanderslice asks, “How often has a TOC champion continued to debate in college?”

Hetal Doshi was affiliated with the Barkley Forum — Emory University’s policy debate program — after her 1997 TOC championship.

Valley High School’s Ari Simon, the 1998 TOC champion, competed in parliamentary debate for Yale; Greenhill School’s David Wolfish, the 2005 TOC champion, has done the same for UPenn. These schools compete on the APDA (American Parliamentary Debate Association) circuit. 2003 TOC champion Andrew Garvin, who debated for Mission San Jose High School, competed briefly for Berkeley on the NPDA (National Parliamentary Debate Association) circuit.

David Kennedy won the TOC for Regis High School in 1989 and won APDA for Harvard — with partner Chris Harris — in 1992. While he is the only TOC champion to take that title, Lincoln-Douglas debaters have found a considerable amount of success in this arena. Among the other notable top debaters who won APDA are Shenendehowa High School’s Liz Rogers, Isidore Newman School’s Justin Osofsky, and Valley High School’s Brian Fletcher, who won the title for UPenn in 1996, for Harvard in 1998, and for Yale in 2001, respectively. More recently, Regis High School’s David Denton won for Yale in 2007, Walt Whitman High School’s Michael Baer in 2008. (All of these champions won with partners, as parliamentary debate is a two-person activity.)

And that’s just to name a few.

It should also be noted that Josh Anderson, who was top speaker at the TOC, won the national championship of the NPDA and the title of the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence with partner Rachel Safran in 2006.

Chris Theis informs me he will not be debating in college.

Joey Yagoda asks, “It seems as though there have been a lot of NFL/TOC crossover success stories, yet we haven’t really heard about NCFL/TOC crossover stories recently. Are there any recent examples?”

The NCFL has less of an organized institutional memory than the University of Kentucky (for the TOC) and the National Forensic League (for Nationals), so it’s difficult for me to say for certain. But, as many long-time readers know, I’ve labored to put together as complete a list of NCFL champions in Lincoln-Douglas debate as possible.

Regis High School’s David Kennedy is the only person to win both the TOC and the NCFL. He accomplished this in 1989.

Shenendehowa High School’s Liz Rogers was the 1994 NCFL Champion and was in quarterfinals of the TOC the same year.

Past champions Jeremi Suri of Stuyvesant High School (1990), Ben Rothstein of Milton Academy (2001), and Tara Tedrow of Celebration High School (2005). (Tedrow is the only person ever to win the NCFL twice in Lincoln-Douglas debate — she did this in 2004 and 2005 — but cleared at the TOC her senior year only.)

There are also some non-champions who placed well at both. Here are a few of them.

2006 National Champion Douglas Jeffers of Dulles High School was in finals of the NCFL as a junior and in semifinals of the TOC as a senior. (He won NFL Nationals as a senior.) Jude Volek of the Bronx High School of Science was runner-up at the NCFL in 1999 and in quarterfinals of the TOC the same year.

This year’s NCFL runner-up, Ben Lewis of Walt Whitman High School, was also an octafinalist at the TOC.

Phelan O’Neill asks, “Who sits on the current TOC Advisory Committee in Lincoln-Douglas debate? made up the original TOC Advisory Committee in LD?”

Current members of the TOC Advisory Committee in Lincoln-Douglas debate are Mike Bietz of Harvard-Westlake School, Mike Burton of Eastside Catholic High School, George Clemens of Lake Highland Preparatory School, Wesley Craven of South Eugene High School, Jon Cruz of the Bronx High School of Science, Lexy Green of College Preparatory School, Kandi King of Winston Churchill High School, Dave McGinnis of Valley High School, Tom Rollins of the Potomac School, Aaron Timmons of Greenhill School, Joe Vaughan of Scarsdale High School, and Pam Cady Wycoff of Apple Valley High School.

The original TOC Advisory Committee in Lincoln-Douglas debate was constituted in 1986.

Its members were Tim Averill of Manchester High School (now Manchester Essex Regional High School), Patricia A. Bailey of Homewood High School, Sandra Berkowitz of Monticello High School, Michael Busjahn of Valley High School, Ken Clark of Twenty-Nine Palms High School, Eric Di Michele of Regis High School, Glenda Ferguson of Heritage Hall School, Dale McCall of Twin Lakes High School, Laurel Moore, Virginia O’Keefe of T.A. Edison High School, Sharon Pennell of Wautaga High School, Julie Sheinman of Stuyvesant High School, Terrance M. Shuman of Bishop LeBlond Memorial High School, Bonnita Stahlberg of South Eugene High School, Richard B. Sodikow of the Bronx High School of Science, Billy Tate of Montgomery Bell Academy, and Lisa Tobin of Albany High School.

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Jon Cruz is still attempting to compile complete results for the 1986 Tournament of Champions, and isn’t embarrassed to admit that he spent a combined two hours of free time today digging through the archives to do so.

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