By Tanisha Naik
After four years of developing Lovett’s debate program, Dr. Ezell has found a new direction for the team: World Schools.
“This year brought a big change that’s given me some clarity about the direction of the team going forward,” Dr. Ezell said.
In previous years, Lovett debaters competed across multiple formats, including Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum. While those formats will still be available, the team will now primarily focus on World Schools.
World Schools debates are called that because they are “literal world championships.” At the highest levels, in the larger tournaments, you are representing your nation, not just your individual school.
World Schools debates differ significantly from traditional formats. In the first round, teams of three to five students compete, with only three students speaking per round. Debaters learn the topic just one hour before the debate and must prepare without technology or outside help. “So it’s a much more casual and conversational style of debate,” he said, unlike other events where the speaking is very fast and technical because you could do a ton of prep in advance. “But it’s like anything else. With practice, you get good at it,” he said.
While World Schools may be more approachable, Dr. Ezell said that “it’s harder to get really good at it because the best speakers are really powerful and commanding, and they know how to manage the style of it really well.”
World Schools debates are not a very common format yet. Westminster is the only other school that has a significant presence of it at the moment, “and Midtown is starting to pick it up.”
In October, Lovett won the first-ever World Schools tournament held at Westminster, the first-ever held in Georgia. “That win felt like a nudge to move in this direction,” Dr. Ezell said.
Also, this season, Lovett’s World Schools team was a finalist at Midtown High School’s tournament and at Lassiter High School. At Midtown, the team of Cate Turner, Emily Mansurian, Amani Lakani, and Corbin Patterson went undefeated through the first three rounds before narrowly losing in the final round.
Lovett debaters are also succeeding in other formats. Senior Jackson Van Os won the Lincoln-Douglass division at the Midtown tournament. At the same time, the public forum team of Naomi Norlander and Sonu Mital nearly reached the elimination rounds at the Hart tournament.
I spoke with Naomi Norlander to check in on her season.
Naomi competes in all formats, including Congress, Lincoln Douglas, and World Schools. She prefers Public Forum.
Naomi said her season has been “a little rocky this year.” She noted that she won several awards and reached a higher rank at Harvard last year. Despite this, she has improved, especially in spreading (speed reading).
Her favorite debate topic is one she submitted herself. “It’s about whether or not this house, as the British government, would choose to unmask the artist known as Banksy, and whether or not people should try Banksy for crime submitted or keep him on mask and keep him protected,” she said.
If she had to choose an official topic, it would be “the House believes that the artist is separate from their work,” Naomi said.
Looking ahead, Naormi is excited about next year’s debate because she will be able to judge for the first time.
According to Dr. Ezell, many young debaters have also emerged as promising speakers. Freshman Amani Lakani has done really well in the World Schools format in its first year at Lovett, while Lee Wetlzer ranked 13th out of 80 speakers at a recent tournament.
Senior Evan Lee, the team captain, has also played a major role in making debate a more significant activity. In addition to developing his own debate skills, he has helped build Lovett’s debate community and served as a teaching assistant for the new Advanced Competitive Debate class. Evan also became Lovett’s first representative on Team Georgia, a statewide World Schools team.
Currently, Evan does not compete; instead, he spends his time coaching kids from Westminster and Woodward. “It’s fun, I love debate,” Evan told me.
In addition to coaching, Dr. Ezell also judges many tournaments, which is distinct from coaching. From a judging perspective, he has learned about ways of structuring cases that he would never have considered.
The rubric for judging a world’s round is 40% content, 40% style (which Dr. Ezell said is not really a consideration in the other format), and then 20% strategy. “But on questions of style, it’s trickier because it’s like what can sound like confidence to one judge might sound like aggression to another,” he said.
Looking ahead, the team still has several major competitions remaining this season, including First and Second Year Nationals at Woodward Academy, the international World Schools tournament in Houston this April, and a national tournament at the end of May.
