Mary Washington Starts Strong – (Georgia State, Kentucky and Richmond)

The Mary Washington debate team resumed its winning tradition with a great start to the 2007-2008 debate season. The topic of debate this year is whether the United States federal government should increase its constructive engagement with the Middle East by increasing either foreign assistance or by offering a security guarantee.

At the first tournament of the year, Mary Washington sent two teams to compete at the Georgia State University, which took place from September 22^nd to the 24^th. The two teams that competed were Matt Struth (Jr.) and Kevin Kallmyer (So.), and also Nick Ryan (Sr.) and myself, Sean Jansen (Sr.). Nick and I finished the tournament with a record of 4 wins and 4 losses while Matt and Kevin finished with the preliminary rounds with 5 wins and 3 losses. Due to their success, Matt and Kevin advanced to the elimination rounds at this prestigious tournament for the first time in Mary Washington history.

After opening the season with a quality showing, Matt and Kevin continued their success at the University of Kentucky where they again finished with a 5-3 record and only narrowly missing qualification for elimination rounds. Although, they did not qualify for the elim rounds, it has still been a great start for two of our most promising debaters.

The third tournament of the year took place last weekend at the University of Richmond. The Richmond debate tournament was the first tournament of the year for several of our debate teams including many novice members who joined the team in September. Mary Washington had a total of eight teams competing in the tournament in the Novice, Junior Varsity and Varsity divisions. In the novice division, Mary Washington sent nine debaters that made up five teams; our teams consisted of Rachael Adkisson & Ryan Lott, Brett Kube & Sean Slattery, Nathaniel Delano & Terrell Taylor, Hilary Balbeaith & Ben Saunders and finally Eric Halsey who competed with another novice from the Clarion University. All of the teams competed well and had a great showing for their first tournament. The team of Nathaniel Delano & Terrell Taylor reached the elimination rounds with a record of 4 wins and 3 losses which is very impressive for a team that was facing competition who had several tournaments experience.

In the other two divisions, Mary Washington sent three other teams to compete. In the Junior Varsity division, the team of Amanda Gardner and Farrah Tek had a record of four wins and four losses barely missing elimination rounds. In the Varsity division, the Eagles sent two teams. The first consisted of Jason Martin (Jr.) and his up and coming freshman partner Andrew Squires. Jason and Andrew had a record of 4 wins and 4 losses and also missed elimination rounds based on speaker points. The team of Nick Ryan and I, finished the prelim rounds with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss, defeating teams from Georgetown, Miami (Fla), and the Pittsburgh and achieving the top seed in the tournament. In the elimination rounds of the tournament, we defeated four consecutive teams, two from the University of Towson, one from George Mason and in the final round of the tournament, we defeat Harvard University. The win against Harvard University was a close round in which 2 judges voted for us and 1 judge voted for Harvard. This round avenged our only previous loss in the tournament. For Nick, he has won the tournament for the second consecutive year. Nick received an award for being the 2^nd best speaker at the tournament and I received one for being the 3^rd best speaker out of the other 68 varsity competitors. Overall, the tournament was a great success at all levels. We hope to keep the momentum going as we continue our season.

Farrah and Amanda prepare for Richmond in a practice debate

Jason Working Hard on a Saturday

Debate in the Summer

After the National Debate Tournament ended, the debate community and Mary Washington debate have a bit of a break from the research and intense travel schedule of the year. During the summer the new topic area and potential topics are decided.

The first ballot determined the area that the 2007-2008 topic would cover. The four potential choices were Weapons proliferation, Genetic Engineering, Democracy Promotion and the Middle East. Although all four are relevant and interesting areas, the winning topic was the Middle East.

After having determined the general area to discuss, the topic committee, which is headed by some of the leading debate coaches in country including Mary Washington's coach Tim O'Donnell, then decide which possible resolutions are to debated. The four possible resolutions focus on specific types of Constructive Engagement with countries in the Middle East. The winning topic will be announced at the end of July.

National Debate Tournament / End of the Year

The National Debate Tournament, which is one of the three national tournaments and also last tournament of the year, took place over the week of March 30th until April 2nd. The team arrived in Dallas two days prior to the start of the tournament in order to get a jump on preparation for the tournament. Participating in the tournament were the teams of Matt Struth and Kevin Kallmyer and also Nick Ryan and myself. Along with the teams participating, Jason Martin and Clint Woods accompanied the team to provide help researching and coaching during the tournament.

Although neither team managed to reach the elimination, it was a great accomplishment for the team to have qualified two teams to the National Tournament for two years in a row and to have also qualified teams for the fourth consecutive year. A detailed account of the tournament was written by Jason Martin and Clint Woods at the 2007 NDT blog (http://umwndt2007.blogspot.com/).

The National Debate tournament concluded the 2006-2007 debate season for Mary Washington and the rest of the debate squads around the country. The writers at Mary Washington's debate blog would like to thank several people for their contributions over the course of the year.

Scott Berry: Scott concluded his fourth year in debate at Mary Washington and graduated with a double major in Geography and Political Science. Scott was able to balance being on the debate team along with several other activities such as working political campaigns, being an officer in GIANT productions along with several other clubs and activities. Scott's leadership and work proved valuable to the debate team over his four years on the team but more importantly most people would classify Scott as a Dude.

Will Collins: William Forsythe Collins also concluded his fourth year in debate at Mary Washington, graduating with a degree in History. Mr. Collins demonstrated a great passion for the activity and was one of the hardest workers on the team. Will proved to be both an excellent partner and teammate over the course of debate career whose work was invaluable to the success of the team. We would all like to wish Will Collins the best of luck and hope to have Will remain a part of the team as a distinguished alumni.

Adrienne Brovero: Adrienne's dedication and work ethic helped bring about much of the team's success this year. Her efforts in her first year of coaching here went well beyond expectations and were one of the best parts of the 2006-2007 debate year.

Thanks to everyone and here are a few photos from the NDT taken from the Official 2007 NDT site.

The Whole Team

Kevin & Matt

Nick and I

Clint Woods


Jason Martin

Varsity Takes First in National Debate Rankings

The final debate rankings were published for the American Debate Association. The Varsity debate team ranked 1st in the entire country beating out teams such as Harvard, Georgia and the Naval Academy. The rankings are based upon the combined performance of the team over the course of the entire season for debate.

Matt Struth Sits Down

The novice team finished second in the country ranking just behind Liberty University.

Novices Win Rounds

Mary Washington Does Well at A.D.A. Nationals

From March 10^th to March 12^th, Mary Washington competed at the American Debate Association National Tournament which was hosted by Liberty University. The A.D.A. National Tournament is the last tournament of the year for many of the debaters. The team sent a total of five teams to compete in all three divisions.

In the Varsity division, the team of Scott Berry and Will Collins advanced to the elimination rounds where they would face the team of Wayne State BN. Will and Scott defeated the Wayne State team on a 3-0 decision and would advance to debate a Georgia team that is one of the best two teams in the country. Will and Scott would eventually drop a good debate on a 3-0 decision. The team ended a solid debate career with a quality showing at the national tournament. In addition to advancing the quarterfinals, Scott Berry took home 8^th speaker.

In the Junior Varsity division, the Dorrior Coleman and Jason Martin finished prelims with a 3-3 record. The team then picked it up in elimination rounds and ended up advancing to the Semifinals where they would lose to the eventual champions Wake Forest University.

The novice division saw the team of Cassie Carlton and Amanda Gardner advance to the finals of the tournament finishing second. Amanda and Cassie finished the preliminary rounds with a record of 5-1 and both received speaker awards.

Amanda and Cassie's Speaker Awards

Scott Also Pulls in a Speaker Award

Mary Washington Qualifies Two Teams To the NDT

Over the weekend of February 24^th and 25^th, the Mary Washington Debate team hosted the District VII National Debate Qualifying tournament. The Qualifying tournament determines which teams from each region of the country are able to compete at the National Tournament which is held in at the end of the year. This year the tournament will be held in Dallas, Texas in late March.

At the tournament, both the team of Kevin and Matt, and Nick and I were able to qualify for the National Debate tournament by finishing in the Top 8. Matt and Kevin finished with a record of 6 wins and 2 losses and were fourth out of all the competitors. Nick and I completed the tournament with an undefeated record of 8 wins and 0 losses and finished in 1st place.

In conjunction with the District Tournament there was also a novice tournament that the schools novice teams competed in. The team of Amanda Gardner and Cassie Carlton competed in. Cassie and Amanda won the novice division and Amanda receive the honor of top speaker. Kacie Shantz and Farrah Tek also had a strong showing.

The success of the competitors wouldn’t have been possible with out the help of the entire team.

Matt, Kevin and Scott discuss strategy with Adrienne.

Northwestern Tournament

Mary Washington sent three teams to Chicago to participate in the Owen L. Coon Memorial Tournament at Northwestern. The teams participating were Matt and Kevin, Scott and Will, and Nick and I. The team left on Friday morning and flew into bitterly cold Chicago at about 6 p.m. on Friday. All three teams finished with a record of four wins and four losses. Although the results were not up to some hopes, the tournament included one of the strongest fields of the year, and offered good practice for the upcoming District VII tournament which will be held at Mary Washington.















The team waits for pairings at 6:30.

Strong Showing at Navy

A week after winning the George Mason tournament, the Mary Washington debate team had another strong showing at the Naval Debate Tournament. The Naval Debate Tournament took place at the United States Naval Academy over the weekend of January 26th, 27th and 28th. The team sent six teams to the tournament, three in varsity, two in novice, and one in junior varsity.

In the novice division, the team of Cassie and Amanda finished the preliminary rounds with a record of five wins and one loss, and received the second and third speaker awards. The second novice team of Farrah and Kacie also did well defeating a team from the University of Florida who are the reigning football and basketball national champions. In the elimination rounds, Cassie and Amanda finished in second place.















In the junior varsity division, the team of Dorrier Coleman and Jason Martin finished undefeated, and received first and second speaker. In the elimination rounds, Jason and Dorrier advanced to the semifinals before losing to Clarion University on a 2-1 decision.















(2nd Speaker, Dorrier Coleman)

In the varsity division, all three teams reached the elimination rounds. The team of Matt Struth and Kevin Kallmyer was 5-1, and Nick Ryan and I were 4-2. Scott Berry and Will Collins began the tournament 3-1 but were unable to debate the final two rounds or their elimination round due to illness. In the elimination rounds, Nick and I reached the quarterfinals after defeating James Madison in the octofinals, losing to the eventual champions from Wake Forest. Matt and Kevin reached the semifinals, defeating both Liberty and Boston College only to lose the same Wake Forest team. Nick received tenth speaker, and Matt received second speaker out of eighty competitors.















(The Former "A Team")















(Matt and Kevin preparing for semis)














(Nick trying to look important)

Mary Washington Wins George Mason Tournament

The Mary Washington debate team won the George Mason College Tournament this past weekend. The George Mason tournament took place over the weekend of January 19th to January 21st, and fielded 23 teams in the varsity division and 11 in the novice division.

In the varsity division, Mary Washington claimed four out of the top five seeds with the teams of Scott Berry and Will Collins, and Matt Struth and Kevin Kallmyer finishing undefeated. In the elimination rounds, Jason Martin and Leslie Ogburn reached the quarterfinals, losing a close round to Georgetown. In the two semifinals debates, Scott and Will defeated Georgetown's top team and advanced to finals. Nick Ryan and I hit the team of Matt and Kevin and closed out the other semifinal debate.

In the novice division, the team of Cassandra Carlton and Amanda Gardner finished 5-1 and reached the semifinals.

Matt Struth and Kevin Kallmyer take Second

Cassie and Amanda are working hard in a practice debate

George Mason HS Tournament Day 2

The George Mason high school tournament ended yesterday with Stone Bridge SH defeating the team of Cathedral Prep RL on a 2-1 decision. The Junior Varsity division was won by Blacksburg High school and the Novice division was won by Wilson high school. The best varsity debater of the tournament based on speaker points was Nitin Kapania from Blacksburg.

George Mason HS Tournament

January 5th and 6th is the annual George Mason High school tournament. For this tournament, several prestigious Mary Washington debaters including Matt and Kevin are judging for various schools throughout the region. I'm judging for my old school, Blacksburg High school.

Here's Matt, getting ready to judge.

















Kevin is explaining something important.

First Semester/Winter Break

The first semester has ended with several notable successes. The first tournament of the year was Georgia State. The three Mary Washington teams that attended the tournament were Matt Struth and Kevin Kallmyer, Nick Ryan and Scott Berry, and the team of Will Collins and I (The Original A Team). The school defeated several highly ranked teams including Northwestern, Harvard, Kansas and Wake Forest. Matt and Kevin finished with a record of 5-3, barely missing on points.















Matt & Kevin After Defeating Kansas BJ

Following Georgia State, Mary Washington attended the University of Richmond tournament. Nick Ryan & Scott Berry won the tournament, and Matt & Kevin made the semifinals.

After Richmond, the team attended the Cap Cities debate tournament at Catholic University. The novice debaters, Cassie Carlton and Amanda Gardner defeated teams from Kings College, Liberty and United States Military Academy to take first place in the novice division.

The last national tournament of the semester for Mary Washington was at Wake Forest University.  This tournament is one of the premier debate tournaments of the year.  Mary Washington sent the teams of Nick & Scott and Matt & Kevin. Matt & Kevin finished with a record of 5-3, and once again, barely missed the elimination rounds.

The last tournament of the semester was at John Carroll University. The team of Nick Ryan & I finished the preliminary rounds undefeated and reached the semifinals in varsity. In the novice division, the teams of Amanda Gardner & Cassie Carlton and Farrah Tek & Sara Kelley reached the elimination rounds. Nick also received 2nd speaker in the varsity division and Amanda took 2nd speaker in the novice division.

















(Sean Jansen, Diligent Worker)