The Miami Round Robin

This past weekend, October 1-2, the Miami University Debate Team hosted the first Miami Round Robin, featuring seven outstanding high school teams, representing four states. The event was hosted at the Miami University Marcum Conference Center where all participants stayed and the debates were held.

On the opening night the teams gathered first for the opening assembly - here was the spread of certificate trophies to be given out at the tournament.
Also that night the participants socialized before heading to Uptown Oxford for some ice cream.
The "Way We Were" - St. John's Jesuit BR.
And then St. John's BRZ - Dave Zavac, Chris Barnett and Mike Richardson (MU, '09)
The Chattahoochee team of Stefan Jiang and Shasha Zou.
Justin Wilhelm, Chris, Dave and Eli Jacobs, still the night before the tournament.
A small argument broke out (among debaters, imagine that) between Alec Wright (Centerville) and Kyle Davis (MBA). The argument was something about who the best junior in the country is.
Dave modeling the Round Robin T-shirt.
Princeton debater Priya Parikh.
MBA's Kyle Davis.
The Ohio Coaching Mafia: Kristie Cramer (Central Catholic), Alan Bates (Princeton) and Marie Dzuris (Centerville).
Our official photographer, Michael Maffie.
Michael Richardson seemed to be an attractive target for hugs. From Bree Novak...
...from our own Kevin Wieck.
More Kevin...
The debaters received plenty of feedback from the judges. Here is Miami DOF Ben Voth giving advice to Alec.
Here MU professor and former college debate coach Jim Cherney and MU assistant coach Erika Thomas offer some tips to St. John's and Groves.
Here are judges Ilya Galperin (Miami Sophomore) and Mike Richardson (Miami First-Year).
And here is Eli Jacobs (Centerville) who, apparently having run out of room writing on his hand, had to resort to writing down judge comments on paper.
After the final round the participants gathered for the awards assembly.
The Third Speaker was Justin Wilhelm from Canton Central Catholic.
The Second Place Speaker was Alec Wright, from Centerville.
And, winning First Place Speaker by .5 points was junior Eli Jacobs from Centerville.
Participation Awards were given to the following teams:
Chattahoochee - Stefan Jiang and Shasha Zou.
Birmingham (Michigan) Groves High School - Kelly Goodman and Alex Pasqualini.
Princeton High School - Priya Parikh and Kavitha Subramanian.
And St. John's Jesuit - Chris Barnett and Dave Zavac.
Finishing in Third Place, winning 6 out of 12 ballots, was the team from Canton Central Catholic - Bree Novak and Justin Wilhelm.
Finishing in Second Place, with 8 out of 12 ballots was the team from Montgomery Bell Academy (Nashville) - Kyle Davis and Jamie Berk.
And the First Place Team, winning all 12 of their 12 ballots, was the team from Centerville, Ohio - Eli Jacobs and Alec Wright.
After the awards, former MBA (and current Miami First Year) debater Kevin Wieck shows his love for his former squad's accomplishment, hugging the Second Place award.
After the teams had departed the Miami Debate Team dashed to The Smokin' Ox for a well-earned Survivor's Dinner.
We enjoyed hosting the Round Robin and congratulate all the participants!

Miami Debate in Hotlanta

The Miami Debate team traveled last weekend to Atlanta, Georgia to compete against over 100 teams at the Georgia State University tournament.

Mike Maffie (Centerville, OH - soph.) and Jason Young (Centerville, OH - first year) finished with a 4-4 record, losing their break round to Harvard University's second team. Mike and Jason had a bit of bad luck as they were pulled up with a 4-3 record to debate Harvard who had a 5-2 record. They were judged by two-time NDT champion Tristan Morales.

Earlier in the tournament Mike and Jason had exacted a bit of revenge against one of the Kansas teams that Mike had lost to the previous week at the Northern Iowa tournament.

The Miami team of Mike Jensen (Toledo, OH - soph.) and Michael Richardson (St. John's, OH - first year) finished with a 3-5 record. They recorded victories against teams from Wake Forest and Northwestern. Importantly, they also won the year's first "Battle of Miami's" - defeating a team from the University of Miami (FL). The two Mikes lost close debates to elim-bound teams from Harvard and Missouri State.

Finally, Miami's junior varsity team of Lydia Elkins (Dayton, OH - soph.) and Julie Wickenheiser (Cleveland, OH - first year) finished with a 3-3 record, losing their break round to the undefeated team from Emory University.


Our travel photojournal:

Here are the debaters in the van as we were leaving campus for Atlanta.

About 30 minutes later we crossed the Ohio River in Cincinnati.

We passed Mike Maffie's favorite Kentucky State Park. Sadly, we didn't have time to stop and visit.

Near Lexington, Kentucky we stopped for a break. Here are the three Mike's and Jason.

Michael Richardson, the team camel, also known affectionately as "DL" (more on that later), bought his water supply for the next few hours.

The camera-shy Mike Jensen.

Here is Erika Thomas, our assistant coach, signing something in Georgia.

We arrived in Atlanta around 6:00 p.m.

On Friday night we traveled up Piedmont Avenue (one of the few roads in Atlanta not named Peachtree) to Fat Matt's Chicken and Fish shack, where we indulged in a mountain of fried chicken, fish, hush puppies and cole slaw.


At the tournament on Saturday we were joined by Stefan Jiang, a recruit of ours from the Atlanta area. Stefan attended our workshop this past summer and spent the weekend scouting for us.

On both Saturday and Sunday we ate lunch in "Underground Atlanta" which is a large below-ground food court.

And on Sunday night, we tried to eat at a recommended restaurant called "The Vortex" but unfortunately they wouldn't serve DL because of his, um, age.

On the trip home, Erika was exhausted, and slept much of the way.

Here is Michael Richardson, uh, sleeping, we think.

We passed the battle of the "Cross vs. Omar's Adult World."

We also stopped for some fantastic shopping at the "As Seen On TV" store, a favorite of alum Sarah Spring.



We stopped for dinner in Berea, Kentucky to eat at the famous Boone Tavern - a restaurant serving excellent southern food, run by students at the local Berea College.

And here we all are, heading in to the final stretch back to Oxford.


This weekend we are hosting a high school round robin - see a separate post on that later.

Next weekend four Miami teams are traveling to the University of Kentucky's Henry Clay tournament, where we will compete against over 120 of the nation's best teams. The "Clay" is one of the two or three toughest tournaments of the year.

Miami Debate Does Northern Iowa

The Miami University debate team traveled to the University of Northern Iowa to compete in the "Season Opener" tournament held in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Here are the four debaters outside the van in Iowa.
The team of Ilya Galperin (sophomore, Toledo) and Aaron Vinson (freshman, GBN) reached the quarterfinals. They were 5-3 in the preliminary rounds, cleared as the 17th seed. They defeated Wayne State in the double-octa finals and defeated the top seed from Missouri State in the octas. Here are Ilya and Aaron in their post-round discussion after winning the double-octas.
The team of Mike Maffie (sophomore, Centerville) and Kevin Wieck (freshman, MBA) reached the octa-finals. They were 6-2 in the prelims, cleared as the 6th seed. They lost to Baylor University in the octa's. Here is Mike prepping for the octa's debate. Kevin prepping for the first prelim round.
Mike Maffie was the 18th speaker. Here he is receiving the award.
Kevin, Ilya and Aaron on the van ride to Iowa.
Mike highlighting evidence on the way to Iowa.
On the way to Iowa we saw...corn fields.
Ilya, Kevin, Aaron and Mike in the hotel lobby at our arrival in Waterloo.
Prep the day and night before the tournament.

A little bit of "team bonding" in the hotel on Saturday night.
Ilya and Aaron prepping before their double-octa final round against Wayne State.

Conducting an anti-terrorist operation in the Iowa 80 truckstop (the largest truck stop in America).

More corn fields...
Ilya, as we all were, tired on the way home.

NEXT WEEK: We travel to Georgia State. Mike Jensen (sophomore, Toledo) will be debating with Michael Richardson (freshman, St. John's). Mike Maffie will be debating with Jason Young (freshman, Centerville).

Miami Debaters Return to Oxford for Debate Work Week

This Sunday the people who are debating for Miami are returning to Oxford to begin our one-week workshop on the college topic. Our first meeting is Sunday evening.

Our debaters are:

Lydia Elkins (second year)
Ilya Galperin (second year)
Dan Gibbons (second year)
Mike Jensen (second year)
Matt Kern (third year)
Mike Maffie (second year)
Mike Richarson (first year - St. Johns)
Stephen Solomon - (fourth year)
Kevin Wieck (first year - MBA)
Aaron Vison (first year - GBN)
Jason Young (first year - Centerville)

We also know of a couple of potential other people who are interested in being on the team but who will not be attending our workshop.

Our travel schedule (debaters will attend 4-5 of these) for the first semester:

University of Northern Iowa
Georgia State University
University of Kentucky
Loyola University, Chicago
Wayne State University
Harvard University
Wake Forest University
John Carroll University

Steve

Open Thread

Post on any topic that you wish.

Name the 5-Week Workshop

As I wrote in the previous post, the name "Oxford Scholars" belongs to the MU undergraduate honors program. We agreed that we would find a new name starting in 2006.

While I'm sure this post will cause many humorous suggestions, we hope you'll make a few serious ones too.

Just so you know, we've ruled out "Lundy's Camp 'o K's". Also the "Karl Rove Scholars" has been rejected. Otherwise let us know your thoughts.

We'll give a small reward to the first person who suggests on this blog the name we ultimately select.

Steve

Announcements: 2006 Dates, Name the 5-Week Workshop, and Open Threads

Greetings -

Sorry we haven't posted for a few days. Confession, we took some time off.

Anyhow we have three pretty big announcements for you.

First, we've established the dates tentatively for Summer 2006. The 3-Week workshop (Red Hawk) will run from June 25 to July 15. The 5-Week workshop (see below about the name) will run from June 25 to July 29. So pretty much the same dates as this past summer.

So those of you who aren't seniors should mark the dates on your calendar. Seniors, tell your friends.

Also in the 2006 department, we've started negotiating with faculty members regarding next summer and will certainly let you know here when we have some names to announce.

Second, we have to change the name of the 5-week workshop, and we want your suggestions. It turns out there already is a program on our campus called the "Oxford Scholars" (it's part of the undergraduate honors program). Well they were a little miffed that we created this confusion and asked us to change the name starting next year. That's where you come in.

We sort of like the name "Oxford" as a starter, but aren't wedded to it. We want you to help us come up with the name, so I'll start a thread as soon as I finish this post - called "Name the Five-Week Workshop" and you can post your ideas there.

Third, since so many of you are clamoring for new posts, and frankly we're sort of busy now getting ready to debate China, we will periodically (at least once a week) create an "Open Thread" where you guys can post on whatever topics you like. For example, you could let us know how you've been doing since camp ended. If you want to discuss the real world (current events, the 2006 elections, the 2008 elections...etc.) go for it. Whatever you want. Just keep it in relatively good taste, as always. Your parents read this, you know.

Why do so many of you post anonymously?

Some people from the camp have probably quit looking at the blog for now, so since we're getting active again you might want to let them know there's plenty to read about.

Good luck, let us know how you are doing.

Steve