William Neuroth has been an instiution with Washington Urban Debate over the last seven years. He went to Middle School Nationals twice representing Stuart Hobson, winning as a 7th grader and reaching deep elimination rounds in 8th grade while talking about deep ecological reforms and environmentalism. 

He had a winning record in his first trip outside the league as a freshman to Mamaroneck, and has been a staple of the Travel Program, shaping the Walls team for the next four years and advancing to elimination rounds frequently over the next four years., often making arguments about advanced technology, AI, Blockchain, and the like. He’s been to summer camp consistently….and has represented us at the Urban Debate National Championship twice now, first with Zahra, and last year, with his little brother, James. 

James isn’t such a little brother anymore, and has largely replicated or surpassed his brother’s career, starting as one of our first ever Elementary School Debaters, winning Middle School Nationals as an 8th grader, and generally advancing to elimination rounds since then. 

The brothers have one last huzzah left in them – they’ve qualified to represent the Washington Urban Debate League for a 2nd time this year at Harvard University. 

Last year, Henry was a freshman debating with a senior and taking a long shot at Nationals. From tagging along and trying to catch up with more experienced friends at Hardy, to being the freshman on a senior heavy team, Henry has always been the young one on the team. Somewhere along the way, Henry also started being quite good, and now he’s secured his second straight trip to the Urban Debate National Championship. 

This year, he’s teaming up with former schoolmate at Hardy, Jack Troutman-Ritchey. Jack was an alternate for MS Nationals, and almost despondent that his partner had graduated (Marie-Celeste Pessey, now at Walls, and a National Urban Debater of the Year Finalist). I told him to grab the smartest person he can put up with, suck it up, and try again. He ended up making a deep elims run with now co-captain at Duke Ellington, Amra Tesfaye, seeding a great new team in the process. 

Now, he and Henry aren’t starting from scratch, and the results speak for themselves – they’ve qualified to represent us at the Urban Debate National Championship at Harvard too. 

A big shout out to the alternates that almost made it this year – it seems to get harder and harder each year. 

BASIS DC’s Alex Ting and Royana Pouydel – this partnership has had a bad news bears relationship with success this year, advancing to elimination rounds only to get sick or coached over this year. Unfortunately, their luck continued. 

Walls’ Amelia Gibson and Simone Abiy – these sophomores are the break out team of the year, not only advancing to Varsity for the first time, but, through hard work and good research, they have advanced to elimination rounds, getting themselves inches from Harvard this year (and exceedingly well positioned to qualify in the future). 

We are excited to continue participation in the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues Debate En Espanol Round Robin. Our representatives for this event will be Claudia Hyman-Jimenez and Adeline Worsley of DC International. 

Shout outs to last year’s representatives, Yudelkis Castellanos-Lima and Diana Ramirez of Forest Park, and Jose Ulerio and Chris Alvarez of Duval High School, our alternates. 

These teams are exemplar representatives of the greater Washington Urban Debate League community, and will be supported by a vigorous team of supporters at Harvard University this April, including WUDL Staff Danielle Dupree, Dennis Martinez, and Alex Montgomery, along with longtime alumni and veteran coach at Walls, Eric Clarke, and alumni judge, Joey Villaflor, a Capital City Alumni.