WDCA History

This Cross-X.com thread has generated a substantial discussion of the history of the WDCA and Champsions of the Varsity divisions. Here’s what we’ve collectively complied.

For Policy Debate

1991-1992
Champion: Sheboygan North MR (Paul Maxon and Jason Renzelmen)
Runner-Up: Appleton East HR (Paul Hoffman and Jim Rose)
Top Speaker: Don’t Know

1992-1993
Champion: Appleton East BD (Ben Bayer and Nathan Dintenfass)
Runner-Up: Brookfield Central (Josh Hellingand Dave Frank)
Top Speaker: Don’t Know

1993-1994
Champion: Appleton East BR (John Brogan and Srinu Reddy)
Runner-Up: Sheboygan North V? (Beth Van Akkeren? and ?)
Top Speaker: John Brogan – Appleton East (?)

1994-1995
Champion: Neenah? (?? – either champ or runner-up)
Runner-Up: Brookfield Central LS (Kevin Lennon and Amy Schwartz)?
Top Speaker: Stuart McKenna – Brookfield Central (?)

1995-1996
Champion: Brookfield Central DF (Jason Deeken and Josh Friess)
Runner-Up: Brookfield East BK (Eric Bielke and Jason Keener)
Top Speaker: Don’t Know

1996-1997
Champion: Appleton East KR (Eric Kessenich and Srikanth Reddy)
Runner-Up: Brookfield Central FH (Josh Friess and Allen Hu)
Top Speaker: Don’t Know

1997-1998
Champion: Nicolet KS (Peter Klein and Nicole Serrano)
Runner-Up: Appleton East KR (Eric Kessenich and Srikanth Reddy)
Top Speaker: Peter Klein – Nicolet

1998-1999
Champion: Brookfield Central ES (Alison Eggert and Ankur Shah)
Runner-Up: Nicolet KN (Peter Klein and Ali Nikseresht)
Top Speaker: Don’t Know

1999-2000
Champion: Brookfield Central SS (Bill Schwartz and Ankur Shah)
Runner-Up: Marquette HN (Jack Hogan and Andy Nolan)
Top Speaker: Kevin Thom – Marquette

2000-2001
Champion: Marquette BN (Manav Bhatnagar and Andy Nolan)
Runner-Up: Brookfield Central MW (Nick Moore and Ted Watter)
Top Speaker: Andy Nolan – Marquette

2001-2002
Champion: Neenah BH (Alex Balistreri and Paul Hager)
Runner-Up: Marquette AB (Ankur Aggarwal and Manav Bhatnagar)
Top Speaker: Manav Bhatnagar – Marquette

2002-2003
Champion: Brookfield Central BB (Akansha Bhargava and Zack Brown)
Runner-Up: Hortonville TW (Michelle Tellock and Scott Weeman)
Top Speaker: Scott Weeman – Hortonville

2003-2004
Champion: Brookfield Central BB (Amit Bindra and Zack Brown)
Runner-Up: Appleton West PW (Maria Putzer and David Watson)
Top Speaker: David Watson – Appleton West

2004-2005
Champion: Brookfield Central BB (Amit Bindra and Zack Brown)
Runner-Up: Neenah DW (Megan Degeneffe and Tom Wichman)
Top Speaker: Zack Brown – Brookfield Central

And for LD (Even though I’ve been at every WDCA state LD tournament)

2001-2002
Champion: Appleton West Russ Rueden
Runner-Up: Appleton East Faris Rashid

2002-2003
Marquette Closes out after Quarter Finals.
Champions:
David Mark
Casey Metz
Paul Bender
Nick Smith

Offically, Casey and Paul were designated as the finalists, with Casey being the champion. But it doesn’t matter if you close out semi-finals. I believe there was also a Marquette coach over in Quarterfinals too.

2003-2004
Champion: Brookfield East Elizabeth Vieira
Runner-up: Hortonville Louise Benke

2004-2005
Champion: Brookfield East Elizabeth Vieira
Runner-Up: James Madison Memorial Brian Samuelson

Blake Prep (when I should be studying for finals)

njbubbster02: explain buddism simply
N E Requests: ha. Well, my brother once put it best:
N E Requests: My mom got a huge omelette………
N E Requests: and my brother said “That’s a really Buddhist omelette.”
N E Requests: we went “Huh?”
N E Requests: He goes “You know, the one with everything.”
njbubbster02: laugh.
njbubbster02: that’s pretty good.

……………

MarkerNumber1: oh, I though of another cool case for jeremy to run
MarkerNumber1: since you liked the last one so much
njbubbster02: oh god.
MarkerNumber1: it should be a performance
MarkerNumber1: that we need prayer to guide us
MarkerNumber1: then he prays for part of his speech
njbubbster02: rofl
MarkerNumber1: yeah
njbubbster02: he should kneel too!
MarkerNumber1: unfortunately, he didn’t like it this time

………………
MarkerNumber1: society would be better if oppression was garaunteed not to occur
njbubbster02: usually. unless you want to be all final solution-ish
MarkerNumber1: what, that oppression is justified to solve a greater harm?
njbubbster02: yeah. i wouldn’t advocate that. but its plausible.
MarkerNumber1: hmm
MarkerNumber1: I think I should be able to win on that
njbubbster02: people used to impact turn nuke holocaust senarios and argue spark, “a nuclear war is good”
njbubbster02: you could do the same “oppression good” leads to master race.
MarkerNumber1: that could be performance to
njbubbster02: [i'm being a total smartass, and i think you're taking me seriously]
MarkerNumber1: do the hitler solute
njbubbster02: well, then you might stand a chance to beat vieira (she’s jewish)
njbubbster02: you know, he only got rid of 12 million of them.
njbubbster02: odds are in your favor.
MarkerNumber1: heh

I concur

Although for this season of debate I cared way more about LD than policy (and that was primarily because we had an assistant policy coach and our CX team sorta self-destructed, but I digress), this is the time of the year where I usually regress back to my debate roots and contemplate the strategic game of policy debate. Two issues of policy debate are on my mind.

First, NFL and CFL qualifiers are around the bend, and in addition to what Memorial contemplates doing, I also am concerned in looking after the Sheboygan North kids. My rationale is more than just a concern for my alma mater, but is in tune with my own interests. I have been asked to consider to apply for Sheboygan North’s assistant coaching position next year. It’s also no secret that the entirety of the Memorial debate team is seniors. So, I’m faced with the choice of to help Scheffler (or if he leaves, do it myself) completely rebuild the Memorial debate team (in CX and LD) or go back home and help grow debate again.

On one hand, I feel obligated to go back and help North. I’m one of the main reasons why they’ve come as far as they have over the last few years. I got Wittrock fired, leading to Soik taking over as assistant, and Soik becoming the head coach this year (He switched with Cook, who became the assistant and is retiring after this year). I also was responsible for teaching Justin and Jackson most of what they knew. It could be fun too, because, Soik really knows less about debate than me, so I’d get to have the role of a head coach, without any of the administrative duties. But I might also be a setback for that program, because I might end up hindering Soik’s development as a head coach. I’m convinced that he’s critical to the success of debate at North. I know that if I was going to take over helping out next year that doing well at qualifiers this year and making it to CFL nationals is going to be a big step in the right direction. Similarly, a qualification for CFL nationals might make a Sheboygan North trip to Maine East justifiable. And that too would be a huge step for their varsity debaters.

On the other hand, I could choose to stay at Memorial and attempt to replicate what Tim and I have help our incredibly bright and intelligent kids (young adults, whatever) achieve over the last three years. And that would be rewarding too. The ability to create a program that has debaters like our current ones every three years, would certainly be more rewarding than simply doing it once.

The second issue on my mind is the topic choice for next year’s policy debate resolution and topic area. The choices are between Civil Liberties and Election Reform. I’m incredibly in favor of election reform, not just because I have a ton of knowledge about such issues, but because I believe that there is actual work to be done in that area. This means that the policy discussions that we would hold would actually be of a greater meaning, than say, our current topic. It would be the best topic since the WMD topic, and probably the best domestic topic since Education.

Moreover, I think the arguments would be really sweet. I’m a big fan of politics debates, and this topic would lead to the best ones ever because the links and internal links would have to be really specific… Or really bad ones in which I just tell the negatives how stupid they were and vote affirmative. The same goes with choices for the affirmative. Affirmatives can advocate a broad spectrum of reform, both radical and moderate, including DC Voting rights, Instant Runoff Voting, Abolishing or altering the Electoral College, Proportional Representation, or Campaign Finance Laws, just to name a few. (Okay, some of the lamer and more moderate choices include a national method of balloting, voter identification, and fraud prevention.) Negative counter-plans that are more than just consulting come back in huge way. Aside from States and State does CP’s there’s also the enamored “Constitutional Convention” counter plan, which is always fun to prevent history and Article V. Plus, there’s a good amount of case debate that wouldn’t suck, because none of these reforms are guaranteed to be successful, much less good. Plus, there’s the ability to argue using the Supreme Court as an actor and a good discussion about the “legalization of politics” given the Court’s Bush v. Gore decision and legal actions concerning election law in this year’s election. (There are other Court Decisions like Baker v. Carr that suggest that Court action on election law is justicable and appropriate).

A lot of people are complaining about the topic, because most of the affirmatives would be impacting back to the same “democracy good” impact. Which is most certainly not true. As an LD coach too, I understand that there’s more than just an implication to democracy concerning the method in which we vote. There are issues like justice (whatever that mean), representation, and good or legitimate governance.

To see a more substantial discussion of the policy topics, check this link out. This is Cross-x.com’s endorsement of the Elections topic. Phil Kerpen presents a good defense of the Election Topic in comparison to the Civil Liberties topic. And for the reasons above, I concur with his endorsement of the Elections Topic.

State Tournament Capstone

After the state tournament (which was yesterday), I was kinda in a funk. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. Coaching and Judging takes a lot, when done well and with your whole being, and even though I thought it would be pretty unstressful for me, it was not. What made the end worse, is that I was not able to ride back to Madison with Scheffler, Jeremy, or Brian, so there was no easy venting for me. To further complicate matters, the music for the ride home was Simon and Garfunkel. While I enjoy the mellow sounds of Paul and Art, the lyrics of the “Sound of Silence” hit a little too close… And then “Homeward Bound” just happens to be the next song as you’re heading back home… So when I finally did get home, I wrote this email to Mr. Johnson, my forensics coach in high school, as a complete and total vent.

But before I post what I wrote, it is important to note that things are already better. I’ve taken the entire day to sit on my ass and accomplish nothing. And I’m succeeding brilliantly. The Packers won and the Vikings lost, which is always reason to celebrate. And one of my kids in my SNFI third week lab from two summer’s ago, who I just judged three weekends ago at Glenbrooks, won Alta Championship (a TOC Quarterfinals bid tournament in Utah). I was completely shocked that someone from my lab acctually accomplished something. It’s certainly a credit to the student and his or her coaches now and since then, because I doubt that I have/had the ability to make anyone good. Regardless, hearing this still made my day better. And I was proud for him… Though certainly not as proud of Brian this weekend….

And on Brian’s side, he’s already begun to look at the positive side. He told me how much fun it was debating this weekend and how rewarding/gratifying it was debating in front of that many people. He also was looking at the positive side of the debate, looking at all the ways he could have won the debate, instead of thinking about how illegitimate it was. So aside from the intial disappointment, I think most of us are over this… and even if we (and by writing this I’m not even sure who “we” constitutes) are not, it just motivation for WFCA State and NFL qualifiers.

Anywho, here’s my vent to Jay. (A brief side note, I always call Mr. Johnson by his first name, since that’s how he introduced me to himself seven long years ago. Its a good thing I never had him in class, because I doubt I’d ever be able to break that habbit.)

Enjoy:

Hey Jay,

I just got back from the State Debate Tournament, and I had few thoughts that I wanted to share. As you know, I’ve been working pretty hard on coaching LD this season ever since Brian made the quarter-finals at Wake Forest, and while our other national circuit trips haven’t gone as well (Glenbrooks, Iowa Valley, Apple Valley and Iowa Caucuses), our in-state tournaments have gone very well. He broke at all three of the tournaments he went to, and won both our tournament and Appleton East’s. So, we prepared very hard going into this weekend. And since Memorial debate is being overshadowed by Drama, Forensics, and mock trial, the size of our team has shrunk: so that I really only had to work with Brian. (Of course Tim’s still the Head Coach, but I’ve been doing a lot more than I have done the previous two years.)

One of Brian’s goals was to win the state tournament. And this was more than just a desire to be the best of Wisconsin (which I still believe he is), there was a personal motive behind. Brian hasn’t been able to beat Brookfield East’s best debater (Elizabeth Vieira) in state, in fact he’s done it once: the memorial forensics tournament… (where I ran the LD tab). [Defeating her, is a little bit like Ahab casing Moby Dick, or in a less literary analogy, like me trying to defeat Courtney... Only he can actually do it.] Today he advanced to the final round and had to debate Liz, to whom his only loss was to (and undeservingly so according to her, Brian, and Scheffler) and ended up losing on a 4-1. At least he picked up Sally Anderson!

But my own emotions were rather difficult to control, I couldn’t even watch the final round. And it was very clear that I was very stressed out during the entire final round, one of my friends from the UW who was judging policy debate [Bob Probst], said that I looked like someone waiting for bad news at a hospital. I had a hard time remembering that the win is not what matters in the long run. I also couldn’t overlook all the work and time I’ve put in coaching over the last few weeks, and just brush that aside as meaningless. Not to mention, I knew how much this meant to Brian.

So aside from this long story/update, why am I emailing you? Well, on the seemingly long car ride home, I reflected on how my own coaches must have felt, not just for me, but for all the other kids that they’ve spent more time with than I had with Brian. So I thought that I’d share this and explain how admirable I thought that my own coaches coped with probably much more stress, much better than I had. I just wanted to say thanks.

Nick.

note: text in brackets was added for this post.

I also found a link to the old debacle of the forensics state tournament, my senior year. http://www.cross-x.com/UBB/Forum24/HTML/001421.html Has all the old details.