News > April 10, 2008

By Natalie Ranck | Asst. news editor

Two-a-day practices, constant strategizing and head-to-head competition might seem more related to the NCAA basketball tournament than a National Debate Tournament, but you’d be surprised.

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Juniors Seth Gannon and Alex Lamballe pose with the rest of the debate team as they display their national championship trophy. (Photo courtesy http://groups.wfu.edu/debate)

Preparation is crucial and competition is fierce among debaters, and from Mar. 28-31 the university’s debate team’s hard work paid off in the National Debate Tournament at California State University-Fullerton when they took home the gold.

Seventy-eight teams made up of two students each were invited to the tournament, and the university took three teams.

Junior Lauren Sabino and sophomore Carlos Maza comprised one of the teams, while twins Seungwon Chung and Doowon Chung made up another.

The national championship team, however, consisted of juniors Seth Gannon and Alex Lamballe, who actually debated against each other in high school.

The team is coached by Ross Smith, who has been coaching for 26 years at the university.

“I stayed in it because the debate community, students and coaches alike, are warm, vibrant and intellectually stimulating,” he said.

He is very excited about his rising talent. “Doowon and Seungwon Chung are juniors who finished the year ranked 20th in the nation and are on a great trajectory to be among the top five teams in the nation next year,” he said.

“Lauren Sabino and Carlos Maza are about to break into the nation’s elite teams – Wake will likely be one of the few teams next year with three or more teams in the top 20.” They also have sophomores and incoming freshmen who have great potential and are quite experienced, but Smith has the utmost respect for his national champions, Gannon and Lamballe.

“They are two of the most talented debaters in the country, obviously, but they are also known, both on the team and across the country, for being unpretentious, friendly and very hard workers,” Smith said.

Preparations for the debate are intense, to say the least.

The top debaters spend a few hours a day doing research, and the month before the NDT a few hours become every spare moment.

There is also a preseason retreat the week before freshman orientation and two-a-day strategy sessions are held during Spring Break as the NDT nears.

Discussions and strategizing take place during regular meetings and practice debates are held to keep the competitors fresh.

Research, however, is the most important and most time-consuming part of the team’s preparation.

“When the annual topic area is announced August 1, we brainstorm and divide up research areas on all of the relevant issues,” Smith said.

“Research continues right up until minutes before the final round of the last tournament.”

This research is presented in the form of briefs, and the team then scouts other teams.

The team goes to the tournament with their own affirmative response, but also with rebuttals to others’ responses.

The coaches play an integral role in preparing the debaters for the NBT. They not only help with the research beforehand, but they also provide strategies.

“They critique our practice debates and they help both with actual research and more so with teaching the debaters how to research,” Gannon said.

The coaches also know the judges, so they know how to coach the debater for specific judges, but they also know when to let it be.

“Part of what makes them so good is they know when to trust us. They don’t over-coach,” Gannon said.

“Wake Forest arrived at the tournament with the best coaching staff in the country.”

The team’s accomplishments wouldn’t be possible without their support system.

“The debate team’s success is made possible entirely by the support of the university and the communication department,” Gannon said.

The atmosphere of the NDT is highly-charged and fast-paced, with debaters averaging 800 words per minute which is faster than an auctioneer and constantly researching their topic.

The topic for this year’s debate dealt with U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, specifically asking the question of whether the U.S. federal government should increase its engagement with Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, the Palestinian authority or Syria.

Every debate has an affirmative, which means the debaters are arguing in favor of the situation, and negative side, which means they are arguing against it.

The NDT holds eight preliminary debates in which the debaters are affirmative in four and negative in four with a panel of three judges.

From there, the judges rank the top 32 teams that are then entered into a single-elimination bracket, much like the NCAA basketball bracket, which is judged by five judges.

Every debate is an hour and a half long, and there is an hour for the judges to make the decision.

In the eight preliminary debates, Gannon and Lamballe were 6-2 and became the fifth seed, while the Chungs were 6-2 and became the eleventh seed.

Sabina and Maza, the third team, were 4-4 but didn’t make the single-elimination bracket.

The Chungs lost a “hotly contested” debate in the first round against Gonzaga, but there was no stopping Gannon and Lamballe.

With a tremendous amount of work and research, the pair soared to the finals where they won decidedly 5-0 against Dartmouth.

“I thought the debate was going well, but Dartmouth is a very, very good debate team, so it was hard to know for sure,” Gannon said.

The pair argued affirmatively that the U.S. should offer Lebanon 200 million dollars to extradite Mohammad Ali Hamadi, who killed an American in the late ‘80s, while Dartmouth argued negatively that the U.S. should not extradite him.

The last speech in the debate is the most important, and the division of labor between Gannon and Lamballe is evident.

“When we’re affirmative, Lamballe gives the last and most important speech, and when we’re negative, I do,” Gannon said.

Until the semi-finals and finals the pair were negative in every elimination round, meaning Gannon had to make the ending speeches.

However, in the semi-finals and finals, that task was left to Lamballe.

“Not everyone has a partner they can absolutely trust to give the final speeches in the semis and finals of the NDT, but I do,” Gannon said.

Smith had no doubts.

“We planned to win. We worked for the tournament with the ‘expectation’ of winning. But as any athlete or competitor knows, competitions end in disappointment for all but one team. There is luck involved,” Smith said.

“So when we won, there was great joy in seeing the hard work rewarded and the hopes fulfilled.”

Both Gannon and Smith admit their success was only possible through the efforts of the entire team.

“It’s a tremendous team effort, and it’s as much about the support of the rest of team and the support of Wake debate alumni as it is about the debaters giving the speeches,” Gannon said.

There were also people back on campus updating research and sending files to California throughout the tournament, and once the other teams of debaters were eliminated, they emphatically joined in to help Gannon and Lamballe.

“While teams debate in pairs of two, the success is one shared by the entire squad,” Smith said.

Gannon and Lamballe are the first partnership to win without a senior member in 10 years.

The pressure is on for Gannon and Lamballe next year.

“It puts on display the strength of the university and the research opportunities available to anyone here,” Gannon said.

Being national champions also attracts people to the program.

“Any good high school debater who didn’t already know they could have tremendous success at Wake, knows it now,” Gannon said.

“The future is bright.”