King’s Debate Society Makes Strong Showing Around the U.S. in February

The King’s Debate Society attended four tournaments in February: Ithaca College Novice Nationals on February 7-8; AEI Values and Capitalism Debates on February 13-14; Northeast University Debate Championship, hosted by Western Connecticut University on February 21-22; and Adelphi University’s “Brown and Gold” Debates on February 28-March 1.

To the Ithaca College Novice Nationals, the Society sent one team, along with a judge. Though they did not win, the team competed well and renewed relationships with other schools from around the Northeast, including Cornell, Vermont, and Ithaca. Through these relationships, the Society was able to invite others to participate in the upcoming tournament at King’s on March 14-15.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) hosted the inaugural Values and Capitalism tournament at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Society sent two teams to compete: John Sailer ’15 and Christian Tegge ’17, and Lucy LeFever ’16 and Jonah Ortiz ’17. “The teams had a great time exploring D.C., meeting staff and guests at AEI, and interacting with many schools we don’t always see, like Grove City, Azusa Pacific, and Wheaton,” said Josiah Peterson ’12, who serves as the Society’s debate coach. “The tournament was run in a format in which we don’t typically compete, but we still had a strong showing.” Ortiz was named 6th top speaker at the tournament.

The Northeast University Debate Championship (NEUDC) is one of the most competitive tournaments in the country, as the Northeast is the most competitive region, and at this year’s event over 60 teams competed. The society sent four teams:  Sailer and Perdew; Ortiz and LeFever; Christian Tegge ’17 and Kyle Trivanovich ’17; and Abby Poit ’16 and Campbell Sinnett ’17. Rachelle Peterson ’12, Billy Pokrzywa ’18, and Josiah Peterson served as judges.

The event was truncated due to terrible weather conditions—“we had to push our van up a snowy hill to get into our hotel’s parking lot,” said Peterson—but in spite of these odds, Perdew and Sailer broke to the Semi-Finals in the 7th seed. They failed to advance to finals on a 3/2 split, but were one of the most successful government teams on the motion “This House Believes that Muslim feminists should publically campaign against the Niqab.” In addition, Perdew was the 6th and Sailerd the 7th top speaker out of 120 at the tournament. Peterson was also invited to judge the Novice Final of the tournament. Other pre-lim topics in the debate tournament included the fat acceptance/pride movement, assisted suicide for terminally ill minors, civil rights moving away peaceful protests, abolishing presidential term limits, whether online anonymity has done more harm than good, and whether Japan should remove Article 9 from its constitution.

The final tournament of the month was Adelphi’s Brown and Gold Debates in Garden City, Long Island, which “have a great place in our hearts,” said Peterson. “King’s hosts scrimmages with Adelphi University and we’ve attended, and successfully competed, at their tournament every year they’ve hosted it since 2011.” In 2014, Ortiz and LeFever won the tournament arguing to legalize Holocaust denial in Germany (and King’s also took second arguing against that motion.)

“This year the sleepy little tournament in Long Island attracted some fierce competition, including a former World Championship top speaker and a NYU Law student who’s won numerous tournaments, both of whom coach debate at their institutions but were qualified for this tournament due to their enrollment in a couple classes,” said Peterson.  Despite the fierce odds, two teams—Perdew and Sarah Hicks ’15, and Ortiz and LeFever—broke to Semi-Finals, where they debated against each other over whether or not to abandon austerity during times of economic crisis.

Ortiz and LeFever went on to face Duke, Vermont (including a former Worlds top speaker), and NYU in the final round on whether the ICC should indict top US officials for war crimes committed since 2007. “While the tournament only officially announced first place, we probably took second, and it was pretty impressive that they made it that far at all,” said Peterson. “They had broken the lowest seed in the break.” LeFever took home the 9th place Top Speaker award and Perdew took home the 7th place Top Speaker award. The Society also had three novices competing for the first time: Jonny Larsen ’18, Michael Sheetz ’17, and Billy Pokrzwa ’18. Other preliminary motions at the tournament included the harms of internet pornography, whether governments should provide free higher education, and whether the US should pressure Israel to remove its settlements from the “occupied territories.”

On March 14-15, the King’s Debate Society is hosting a tournament, and teams from across the country (including California, Maine, Montana, and Virginia) are slated to attend. The Society also hopes to participate in scrimmages with teams from St. John’s, NYU, Adelphi, CUNY, and Bard in April. Also in April, the Society will be attending the U.S. University Debate Championship in Anchorage, Alaska. To help defray costs, they are raising funds for the trip through Crowdrise.

Prospective King’s students interested in debate can explore scholarship opportunities through the Society on the King’s website.