This past weekend, the Washington Urban Debate League did a bunch of things it had never done before: 

Host an in-person qualifier for the Tournament of Champions

Host an in-person qualifier for the Tournament of Champions….at the same time as a local tournament

Host an in-person qualifier for the Tournament of Champions…..at the same time as a local tournament, while also having a bunch of new teams debut at the same time. 

Veteran’s Day weekend 2022 was so eventful in the Greater Washington Debate Community, we’re going to split our coverage — this post will just cover the regional competition. 

The Tournament of Champions, or “TOC,” is one of the five prestigious national, End of Year tournaments available to high school students. Unlike the NSDA/NFL or CFL nationals, students need to qualify through their performance at large, competitive tournaments with a strong “strength of schedule,” not just through virtue of geography. The TOC is considered the gold standard of highly competitive high school debate, and while it isn’t part of our core mission at WUDL to try to win this tournament, it is a nice accolade for our most advanced Varsity debaters to pursue, and we certainly have the coaching resources to support folks at this level.  

These qualifiers are mostly hosted by Universities, or large, established high school programs at affluent schools across the country. Of the WUDL travel schedule in a normal year, two are hosted at colleges, while the other six are hosted at prestigious high schools in affluent suburbs known across their regions (if not the nation) for their excellence in high school debate. 

We host the other one. 

Originally named for the DC International “Dragons,” the tournament has never actually been hosted in person at DC International due to the pandemic, and moved to historic Eastern High School this fall. We were excited to work with Principal Miller, a strong advocate for debate, to host this event in a historic, recently renovated school, one of the few in the city large enough to fit everyone. He and Coach Riddick moved mountains to make this competition a reality, and have our special thanks. 

The regional competition featured more than 150 students from 10 states across the nation, as far away as Oregon and as close as Sidwell Friends and Georgetown Day, WUDL’s private school neighbors and competitors (originally more than 200 students, but the RSV going around reduced our numbers in the week leading up to the competition). The tournament featured 6 rounds of debate spread across Friday and Saturday (local tournaments are Saturday only, with 4 rounds of debate), followed by a single elimination bracket afterwards for the teams with the best record. The top two would qualify for the TOC. 

WUDL entered students from 19 entries from 13 schools (BASIS DC, Banneker, Capital City, Charles Flowers, CMIT North, DuVal, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass, Hardy, McKinley Tech, Oyster Adams, School Without Walls, and Stuart Hobson). The students prepared hard — this is our “home” game, we wanted to put our best foot forward. If someone wanted this TOC bid that wasn’t us, we’d make them earn it. 

When the dust settled, we’d matched a few league records for best performance at a tournament of this magnitude. 

In Varsity, Capital City’s Birnstad / Villaflor and CMIT North’s Sobowale / Wray advanced to elimination rounds as the 12th and 13th seed in the competition. While we didn’t get out of Octofinals, we had some great debates and gave Newark Science and Baltimore City a rigorous challenge. Birnstad was also the 10th overall individual speaker at the competition. 

In Junior Varsity, some of the youngest of WUDL’s debaters shone the brightest. As a high school tournament, middle school entries are rare, and when they are present, they don’t often do well. 

Nobody seemed to tell Stuart Hobson’s Webster and McNamara or BASIS DC’s Greaves. Greaves, debating alone after her partner got sick, didn’t miss a beat, finishing 4-2. The 8th grader advanced to elimination rounds and gave Success Academy (NY) a challenging round before losing in Quarter-Finals. Webster and McNamara, 7th graders who finished 5-1 and the 3rd seed overall in the competition, advanced even further, finishing as Semi-Finalists. They tied a 4 year old WUDL record for best finish by Middle Schoolers in a regional JV tournament (held by Villaflor, now a junior at Capital City in the Varsity Division, when he was in 8th grade). 

We also took home a bushel of speaker awards: McNamara was 6th, Webster was 7th, and Hardy’s Troutman-Ritchey was 9th, his team finishing 10th overall just outside of elimination rounds, as did McKinley Tech’s Ejiko/Esaw (12th) and DuVal’s Gam/Delehant (13th), and Douglass’s Evans/Adejumo (14th). 

The tournament’s food and hospitality was praised by multiple coaches, (yes, debate tournaments can have good, interesting food without breaking the bank or being late) as were the unique trophies representative of DC (Pentagons, Capital Buildings, and White House figurines). 

Many congrats to Baltimore City DS (MD) and Sidwell WS (DC) for claiming the available bids to the Tournament of Champions. I was blessed with the chance to judge Baltimore City DS in elimination rounds this weekend, some very worthy champions! They defeated teams from Lexington (MA) and Kickapoo (MO) to claim the bids. 

The tournament wasn’t possible without our community. 

1. Eastern High School Team — Principal Miller and Coach Riddick. They moved mountains to make this tournament possible, and we can’t thank you enough for your support. 

2. Volunteers: We are a volunteer run organization, and we can’t do anything without your help. Big shout outs to Kency Nittler in the Tabroom, Jessicas Moore and Berenson (9 Rounds Judged), Alan Coverstone (8), Eric Clarke (7), Sam Hanks (7), Sam Haley-Hill (6), Michael Fuentes (6), Noah Hinant (6), Patrick McMullen (5), Alex Lennon (4), Renee Fuentes (4), Joe Karam (4), Marc Goldman (2), Dennis Martinez (2), Allison Pickett (2), and Maddie Lee (1)

3. The Team: McAlister Clabaugh and Danielle Dupree are awesome. Before September, they’d run a grand total of zero in-person tournaments, ever. Now, they’ve run 4, 2 without my help or engagement at all. Their forethought, hustle, and hospitality is unmatched. Go Team!