Facilitating Discussion, Facilitating Change

A professor of philosophy at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he is also a member public policy studies program and the debate coach, Eric Barnes is the author of the groundbreaking Philosophy in Practice: Understanding Value Debate, an authoritative text that has been cited in multiple debate journals and in many issues of the Rostrum. He is also facilitator for the Lincoln-Douglas Education Project. He joins me today for an exclusive VBD interview on Saturday6AM.

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How Anjan Got His Groove Back

With a lot of talk about his days debating, his days coaching, and the days in between, Anjan Choudhury joins me today for the first exclusive VBD interview of the summer on Saturday6AM.

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Interviewing Noel Selegzi

NEW YORK, NY - Saturday6AM now features an interview with the coach of Hunter College High School and the executive director of the International Debate Education Association, Noel Selegzi. His views on the relevance of debate and the future of Lincoln-Douglas debate are available by clicking here.

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“Standards of Excellence”: An Interview with Marilee Dukes

NEW YORK, NY - At long last, I am excited to announce that we will again be featuring exclusive interviews on the Victory Briefs network of web sites. With a series of exciting, engaging, and thought-provoking pieces featuring a number of prominent coaches of the past and present, it seems only logical to feature many of these interviews on VBD’s recently-introduced sister site, Saturday6AM. But while interviews featuring coaches will now debut on that site, we encourage the same extensive discussions that our previous interviews have spurred. The best way to begin a new series of interviews featuring some of the activity’s top Lincoln-Douglas debate coaches, I think, is to begin with the woman that many consider the most successful coach in the activity’s history: Vestavia Hills High School’s Marilee Dukes.

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Schifberg & Craven: We Promised It, We Delayed It, We Promised It Some More…Here It Is!

Remember when Jeremy Schifberg made it to the final round of Nationals? That wasn’t that long ago…but the advertised lateness of this interview might make you think it was. Worry not, dear reader, my questions to Jeremy–and to his coach, Wesley Craven–are still quite timely. Indeed, given Jeremy’s recent success at the Greenhill Fall Classic, and given the deep involvement in debate of both Craven and his star student, these are names we’ll be hearing much more about as the season progresses.

In this VBD exclusive interview, the duo from Oregon–last year’s runner-up at the NFL National Tournament and his coach–share thoughts on the perceived divide between “traditional” and “progressive” debating and its reprecussions on the local and national level, the importance of activism in debate, and, among other things, what it means to be a lifer.

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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.

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Questions and Answers for Tim Averill

Tim Averill–”‘Aves’ to current debaters and ‘TCA’ to the 1970s generation,” notes a group of Manchester team parents–is a long-serving and much-honored member of the debate community. His students have won countless accolades, and his place as one of the most respected coaches in the activity is justified and assured. But now, as he approaches his final weeks as the head coach at Manchester-Essex in Massachusetts, he is asked: has Lincoln-Douglas Debate stayed true to its goals? Averill, one of the leading voices in the creation of Public Forum Debate, doesn’t think so. But that doesn’t mean his ideal LD is simply a mirror of PFD. In this exclusive VBD interview, Averill shares his views on debate theory and persuasion, gives advice on team-building and goal prioritization, and provides food for thought on the youngest national debate event.

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