Marquette Reaches Sweet Sixteen at NDCA National Championship
Posted on May 16th, 2009 by Bill Batterman (Category: Policy Debate, Results)
While most Marquette High students were enjoying the last weekend of their Spring Break, the Webster Club traveled to Las Vegas for the National Debate Coaches’ Association National Championship Tournament. Hosted this year by the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and its debate team, the NDCA tournament has grown into one of the most prestigious in the country. Boasting one of the most competitive fields and perhaps the best judging pool of any high school tournament, it provides a tough postseason test for the nation’s best teams. After travel woes nearly prevented us from competing, the tournament proved an enormous success as Marquette reached the Sweet Sixteen and earned a top-ten speaker award. But it certainly wasn’t easy.
The Webster Club was supposed to be represented by senior Joe Balistreri and sophomore Michael Hoffmann, but plans changed early on Friday morning when Michael’s flight home from a college visit trip was delayed in Atlanta. Fortunately, senior Ben Benson was ready and willing to pinch hit and fill Michael’s spot. Catastrophe was averted—or at least that’s what we thought.
Boarding our Frontier Airlines flight from Milwaukee, the weather was beautiful: with temperatures in the mid-70s and a bright sunny sky, the Chamber of Commerce could not have asked for a better Spring day to showcase the city. Unfortunately, the weather in Denver was not quite so nice. During what we thought would be a short layover, the overcast skies and cold drizzle turned to a full-blown blizzard before our eyes. Flights began to be delayed—including ours—and the snow kept falling.
With things looking bleak, we finally boarded our flight to Las Vegas along with a full load of eager Vegas-goers nearly three hours after we had expected. We were guided through the pre-flight routine as the pilot taxied us to the runway and announced that we were third in line and would be taking off in the next few minutes. A few minutes turned into ten minutes, and then a devastating announcement: our flight had been cancelled and we were taxiing back to the gate.
A mad dash to the Frontier Airline customer service desk ensued as frustrated travelers jockeyed for position in what became a line several-thousand-people long. We were about 100th in line: certainly not ideal, but it could have been worse. With Ben and Joe alternating shifts to keep our spot in line, we surveyed our options and followed the weather and airport reports. With a foot or more of snow expected, things were not looking good. And the line, of course, was barely moving.
We finally made it to the Frontier desk just as one of the four employees behind it decided to take a smoke break. So our wait continued. When she returned, we gave her our names and our destination fully expecting to be told that the next available flight was not until Saturday or even Sunday. Instead, she informed us that we had been placed on the 11:30PM flight—the last flight of the night to Las Vegas—and that we should hurry to the gate to make sure we didn’t miss it.
Shocked—in a good way, for once—that’s exactly what we did. And although the flight did not actually leave until 12:30AM on Saturday, we didn’t care: we were en route to Las Vegas and we would be able to compete in the tournament despite the day’s many travel woes.
By the time we finally arrived at the tournament hotel—the World’s Largest Super 8, a hotel that has (correctly) chosen to advertise its size and not its quality—it was nearly 2:00AM Las Vegas time and we were exhausted. But were there, and that’s all that mattered.
Bleary-eyed but excited to debate, Joe and Ben finished day one with a 3-1 record that included wins over St. Mark’s (Texas), Notre Dame (California), and Westminster (Georgia) and a loss to Glenbrook South (Illinois). The win over St. Mark’s was particularly impressive—that team had been in the finals of both the Glenbrooks and the Barkley Forum and they went on to reach the semifinals this weekend.
Needing a 5-2 record in the preliminary rounds to reach the elims, Joe and Ben began day two with a big win over the “B” team from Damien (California) in round five before losing to our rivals from Woodward (Georgia) in round six. Matched up with the top team from Montgomery Bell Academy (Tennessee) in the final preliminary round, the Hilltoppers prevailed and finished as the tournament’s twelfth seed.
At the awards ceremony on Sunday night, Joe was named the tournament’s eighth best individual speaker—his most impressive speaker award of the season and one that put him square in the middle of an elite group of the nation’s best debaters. Mr. Batterman was also honored with the inaugural NDCA Service Award for his contributions to the organization. To celebrate, we enjoyed a feast of ribs and sweet tea at one of Las Vegas’s best barbeque restaurants—the Ellis Island Barbeque & Brewery, located immediately next to our hotel. The food was fantastic and the prices were unbelievably low—despite the long wait (everyone justifiably loves this place), it definitely receives the Webster Club’s stamp of approval.
On Monday morning, Joe and Ben debated the “B” team from Bishop Guertin (New Hampshire)—two friends including Joe’s partner from summer institute—in the octafinals. Defending the affirmative, we were bested on a 3-0 decision to end our weekend. Despite the loss, Joe and Ben became the first team from Marquette to clear at the NDCA National Championship and Joe earned the highest speaker award of any Hilltopper (Gaurav Bhatnagar was 15th speaker in 2007).
The trip home was much less eventful but equally draining. After staying through the conclusion of the tournament (which was won by Damien over Bishop Guertin), we trekked to the airport in time for our 11:59PM red-eye back to Milwaukee via Chicago. When we finally arrived in Milwaukee, the weather had turned very cold and we drove directly to school just in time for second period.
It was an exhausting trip—but all three of us would do it again in a heartbeat.