The whiz kids on the debate team at the Westminster Schools of Atlanta have scored a national three-peat.
The top-ranked team has swept the National Tournament of Champions Policy Debate at the University of Kentucky for the third year in a row, setting a new record for the league. Westminster defeated more than 70 teams to bring home the title.
The victory was led by the senior high school debating team of Ellis Allen and Daniel Taylor, who have won first place at the tournament two years in a row.
"It's been a goal for us," said Taylor, who will be attending Harvard University in the fall as a member of its debate team. "It took a lot of hard work on our part and our coaches' part. I have come to enjoy the research.’’
Allen sees it as a fitting end to his high school debating career. “It was a thrill," he said. "We had been gunning for it all year.’’
The pair have spent hundreds of hours reading reference materials and scouring the Internet for data to make their arguments compelling. They had to be prepared to argue both sides of the question: Should the United States substantially reduce its military presence in a number of overseas countries?
Three Westminster teams qualified for the prestigious tournament, but Allen and Taylor were the ones who made the coveted final round. Westminster defeated a team from Lexington, Mass., for the win. The Westminster team was coached by Jenny Heidt, who has a long record of TOC wins.
Taylor and Allen have won the respect of national debating experts with their victories.
“Westminster is the first team to ever win the national championships three years in a row,” said Aaron Kall, director of debate for the University of Michigan, who will soon be coaching Allen. And, he said, Allen and Taylor are “the first team to win back-to-back national high school championships since the 1970s.”
Dr. William Allen, a surgeon, was happy for his son, Ellis, who he said put his debating skills to use at home when he wanted to go to a concert or out with friends. "He just presents his case and you have to agree. He will explain who is going to be there, how he is going to get there and why it should be OK for him to go."
The students said being on the debate team will help them in college because they learned time management and how to present information in a compelling way.
“You gain the ability to analyze a claim, see where an argument is weak and look at an issue from all angles," Taylor said. "It teaches debaters to examine their own beliefs very rigorously.”
Allen agrees. But that wasn't what first got him into debate. His parents promised him a laptop. "I stayed because I liked the competition," he said.
Allen is considering a career in law. “If I had to guess, I’d say I would probably end up doing something like that.”
But first, he's likely to go up against his old partner on the college debate circuit.
“He’ll be at Harvard,” Allen said. “There is a good chance we will face off against each other.”
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