Change at the Top (National Champions 2012)

As they have since the Great Depression, the National Forensic League honored dozens of high school students tonight as the country’s finest speakers and debaters. The final rounds for each event streamed all day yesterday from the League’s Facebook page and its official tournament website, showcasing these same youngsters’ incredible talent, poise, and eloquence. The awards ceremony was also streamed live from the Concert Hall of the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Alabama. Though the NFL has consistently recognized the elite schools of the tournament – those who qualify a number of students and see many of them excel at once – the League has dramatically enhanced the slate of such honors this year.

First, 92 schools took home tournament commendations, nearly triple the number that were commended last year. Secondly, last night marked the first time in nearly twenty years that the NFL recognized the top ten teams from the competition. Using a formula that supplies 6-20 points for each entry that advances to elimination rounds, the ten Schools of Outstanding Distinction awards were given to the programs who earned the most total points in the tournament with the caveat that a school must earn points in both the debate events (Policy, Lincoln/Douglas, Public Forum, and Congressional) and the speech events (Extemporaneous, Oratory, and Interpretation).

I’m absolutely ecstatic about this new format, not just because so many schools will be congratulated. It really marks the first time since the 1994 tournament (after which, the League was ordered to shut down its traditional school sweepstakes award) that there will be recognition for the coaches who are able to elicit outstanding collective performances from their entire squads. I also applaud the League for insisting that their most distinguished schools excel in both areas of the tournament. Yes, this will leave some extremely talented coaching staffs out of this particular winners’ circle because they choose to specialize their programs (or perhaps their fortunes merely landed on one side of the ledger this year). Those schools can still take home an Excellence or Honor award in speech or debate (or both, actually), which is very important. This activity eats up most of the school year’s weekends for many of these elite programs.  In order to prevent the burnout of the team’s coaches, students, and families, many schools are choosing to focus on just a few events. It’s easier on the calendar and, of course, the school’s budget. The NFL has done quite well to make sure eighty awards are reserved for those teams who enjoyed tremendous, targeted success this past week.

Nonetheless, the highest honors deserve to go to the schools that can qualify multiple speakers and debaters to Nationals and break beyond the preliminaries on both ends. I’m thrilled about the Schools of Outstanding Distinction awards because they recognize the coaches of these distinguished programs for what they are: some of the finest educators in the nation. When several students can achieve outstanding results across a wide array of events that each emphasize very different speaking skills and styles, that is a testament to an incredibly facile team of teachers. In this instance, the breadth of top performances reveals a depth of instruction, and only by recognizing the very best teams and the very best schools at the National Championships can the power of the very best educators in the land truly be exalted.

With those kind of accolades in mind, I hope to profile those programs recognized in Birmingham last night shortly. In the meantime, let’s warm up with a look back at the elite programs from last year’s tournament. Based on the previous formula whereby the NFL awarded thirty-four School of Excellence awards, here are some quick profiles of last year’s ten best performers.

10^th place: Brookfield East High School – Brookfield, Wisconsin. A phalanx of coaches brought thirteen students from their home base about a dozen miles west of Milwaukee into Indianapolis for the National Championships. Mary C. Wacker and Steve Sexton moved three entries apiece into the late elimination rounds of speech and debate, respectively. With an emphasis on teamwork, the Spartans’ terrific campaign was paced by ten-round efforts from the Duo team of Hanna Giese & Katie Klann and the Public Forum team of Jonas DeMuri-Siliunas & Archit Baskaran.

9^th: Lincoln High School – Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Right where Minnesota and Iowa “T” into the eastern border rests this school with a long tradition of forensic excellence. The 1981 National Champions entered the tournament with eleven qualifiers and saw their Policy debate team of Evan Jones & Bryant Yang take  home 8^th place in the event. Head coach Ashley Griese also advanced four speakers into the knockout rounds, capped by semi-finalist Isabel Middleton-Watts in Dramatic Interpretation.

8^th: Nova High School – Davie, Florida. The Miami Heat’s ascension to the summit of the NBA may have only just started, but the Titans have been a perennial force at Nationals that may well be on its way to exceeding even their own lofty expectations. A staple in the final rounds of Congressional debate (evinced by finalist Senator Gregory Bernstein and 8^th-ranked Representative David Jakubowicz this year), Coach Lisa Miller has steadily grown the team’s mettle in other events, too: Brent O’Connor claimed 6^th place in Humorous Interpretation.

7^th: George Washington High School – Denver, Colorado. Thirteen young patriots marched into Nationals to represent this metropolitan school of approximately 1,400 total students. Coaches Maryrose Kohan and Greg Sobetski brought outstanding performances out of their squad, with over half the squad advancing deep into the tournament including three finalists: Congressional debaters Langston Williams and Eli Gordon (both in the House division) and speaker Daniel Morgan-Russell (4^th place, International Extemporaneous).

6^th: Ridge High School – Basking Ridge, New Jersey.  David Yastremski has helmed this debate powerhouse for well over a decade. Based about twenty-five miles west of Newark, the Red Devils  landed in the top ten for the second consecutive year on the strength of 4^th place Public Forum team  Adam Badrawi & Sam Klein and 3^rd-place Congressional debater Shivam Patel (House). Ridge sent two more students to the finals in the House plus another in the Senate to cap an impressive run in Indianapolis.

On the other coast is another Christian boys school that has not only occupied the NFL’s top ten for decades, but the Bells broke historic ground in Dallas. Matthew Grimes & Dylan Groves became the first Policy debate champions from California in over three decades, while speakers Brian Stephan (7^th place, National Extemporaneous) and Ananth Srinivasan (9^th place, Oratory) also cracked the top ten for head coach Kim Jones’ squad.

Tied-4^th: Brophy College Prep – Phoenix, Arizona.  Under the guidance of Elizabeth Clarke for the past decade, this Jesuit school has consistently performed well in both debate and extemporaneous speech. In 2012, the Broncos rose to superior heights with four young men claiming top-ten awards: Congressional Representative Joe Russell (6^th place), Policy team  Abhinava Singh & Andy McCoy (9^th  place), and Extemporaneous National Champion William McDonald  (Domestic division).

Tied-4^th: Blue Springs High School – Blue Springs, Missouri. After a twenty-minute drive heading east out of Kansas City, you’ll find a program that boasts two coaches with a total of nine NFL diamonds between them. The deep talent and experience of Sherri Shumaker and Jacquelyn Young took the Wildcats to unprecedented heights. Students reached the tenth round in Policy Debate and all three interpretation events, led by Dramatic Interpretation semi-finalists Lyric Davis and Michilla Walker. 

3^rd: Eagan High School – Eagan, Minnesota. Four-diamond coach Joni Anker has built a modern dynasty at this program located fifteen miles south of St. Paul, claiming an (unofficial) national championship three-peat from 2008-2010. The school qualified an astonishing seventeen students to Indianapolis across all six speech events and three divisions of debate. Five students finished among the country’s top ten: Jacob Guizor (2^nd place, Humorous Interpretation), Justin Wirsbinski (5^th place, Dramatic), David Newhall & Madeline Sachs (7^th place, Duo), and Thomas Dyke (6^th place, Oratory).

2^nd: Bellarmine College Preparatory – San Jose, California. This marks the sixth consecutive year that the Bells have ranked among the top three schools at Nationals, an incredibly high bar that coach Kim Jones and her staff continue to meet.  All but four students from their squad of sixteen reached the elimination rounds, including two finalists in US Extemporaneous (Debnil Sur earned 4^th place while Madhu Vijay took home 2^nd place), two finalists in Congressional debate (Senator Aditya Mukund and 7^th-place Representative Matt Chan, and the 4^th-ranked Lincoln/Douglas debater Matt DeLateur.

2012 National Champion: James Logan High School – Union City, California. Yet another modern dynasty sits to the east of San Francisco Bay, about twenty miles south of Oakland. Led by four-diamond coach Tommie Lindsey, the team has been chronicled in a documentary and by Oprah Winfrey for its incredible success with at-risk students. Logan isn’t the only place where forensics lifts students above socioeconomic disadvantages, but it is arguably the most successful: the Colts captured their fourth national title since 2005, and it has only slipped out of the top five once in that span. Every one of the squad’s fourteen students advanced to elimination rounds at Indianapolis, led by Dramatic Interpretation semi-finalist Nathan Leal and the National Champion Duo team of Sarah Dahdouh & Deborah Witherspoon.