Recent News
February 21st, 2012
West Allis Central Hosts February MDL Tournament
Congratulations to the students who completed at last weekend’s MDL tournament. Students from Bradley Tech, Veritas, Nicolet, Rufus King, and Vincent High Schools competed at the tournament, hosted by West Allis Central High School.
Nicolet debaters Seth Johnson and Greg Mayzus finished at the top of the Varsity Division for the second consecutive tournament, winning first and second place speaker awards in the process. The Rufus King team of Elias Payne and Malik Anderson came in a close second place, followed by Bradley Tech’s Maceon Downer and Will Hughes and Rufus King’s Aliye Kidwell.
In the JV Division, the team of Weston Richey and Cierra Reed from Rufus King took home top honors, followed by Veritas’ Kieran Villoth and Noel Vazquez and Rufus King’s Jabari Robinson and Teressa Shaw.
The Novice Division was dominated by teams from Vincent High School, with the team of Travon Thomas and Yutunda Moore taking home first place, followed by their teammates Moriah Parker and Chris Fears, and Khadijah Williams and Lonna Henry. Travon also took home the tournament’s Character Award for his consistent and outstanding leadership, his professionalism at tournaments, and for his consistent competitive excellence (he was also top speaker in the Novice Division).
The February MDL Tournament marked the last time students will debate before the regular season-ending Milwuakee Debate League City Championships, which will be held March 23-24 at Marquette University.
For complete results from the tournament, click here.
January 16th, 2012
December MDL Newsletter
This month’s newsletter includes:
• Results and photos from the December MDL tournament, hosted by the Professional Learning Institute on December 17, 2011.
Download the newsletter here.
January 16th, 2012
Nicolet Hosts January MDL Tournament
This past weekend marked the fifth MDL tournament of the season, bringing together students from five schools to compete at Nicolet High School.
Host Nicolet High School came out on top in the Varsity Division, with students Seth Johnson and Greg Mayzus taking home first place team honors. Rufus King debater Keenan Gibson took home first place speaking honors.
In the JV Division, Vincent High School took home first place, with debaters Jonquis Eason and Angelique Smith going 3-0. Professional Learning Institute debater Cedric Lewis, a freshman, took home top place speaking honors.
Maceon Downer of Bradley Tech was awarded with the year’s second Character Award for his dedication to the Bradley Tech program, his willingness to help others, and his leadership on this team. Nicolet coach Nasif Rogers won the year’s second Outstanding Adjudicator Award.
Congratulations to all of those students who competed! Here are the complete results.
January 10th, 2012
Transportation Infrastructure Announced as 2012-13 Policy Topic
And the winner is…
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its transportation infrastructure investment in the United States.
Some excerpts from the topic paper (written by Wisconsin’s own Nick Bubb) on potential affirmative areas:
Dams/Levees – Many dams and Levees need significant maintenance and upgrading. Some levees and dams are under the direct control of the federal government, while others are under local control. ―In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, Congress passed the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2007. The Act required the establishment and maintenance of an inventory of all federal levees, as well as those non-federal levees for which information is voluntarily provided by state and local government agencies. The inventory is intended to be a comprehensive, geospatial database that is shared between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the states. Potential affirmatives could call on the federal government to directly repair federally owned levees and dams or offer assistance to towards local communities to repair locally owned levees and dams.
Bridges – Bridges in the United States are built, maintained, and are funded with a mixture of state and federal dollars. Many of those bridges are in disrepair. Potential affirmatives could call for the federal government to increase in funding devoted to bridges in an effort to improve the condition of existing structures.
High Speed Rail – Passenger rail has long been on the decline in the United States. This decline has promoted excessive automobile and airline traffic. While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act offered funds to create high-speed rail projects around the country, several Governors have refused funding. Additionally, long-term funding beyond the stimulus does not exist. Potential Affirmatives could call for the federal government to increase its commitment to developing a high-speed rail network across the United States, creating a long-term commitment.
Download and read the entire topic paper here.
January 4th, 2012
Registration Open for January MDL Tournament
Happy New Year MDL! We’re excited to announce that registration is now open for the MDL January Tournament, to be held January 14th at the Nicolet High School. This is likely to be a smaller MDL tournament than December’s (although we might be pleasantly surprised), so it’ll be a great opportunity to bring along debaters who haven’t yet competed at an MDL tournament this season. If you have students who are nervous about competing, then this might be the tournament for them.
To compete, please keep in mind the following:
* Novice teams are limited to: Moon Base Affirmative and Negative, India DA, Space Debris Affirmative and Negative, and Topicality (all of these can be found in the WDCA packet). Argument summaries are available upon request, or can be found online. Please note that this will be the last tournament with these argument limitations for novice (we’ll be opening it up a little next month).
* There are no limits on what arguments the JV and Varsity can run, but teams must fully disclose 1ACs with citations by Monday, January 9th at 5:00 PM. While not required, we strongly urge you to disclose negative arguments as well. Please email all disclosures to billaltorfer@urbandebate.org (see disclosure form in tournament documents section). Disclosed affirmatives will be emailed out and posted on the tournament website on Monday evening.
* We will be offering Novice, JV, and Varsity divisions. These may be collapsed as needed due to numbers.
* Tournament schedule can be downloaded via the tournament documents page. It’s also attached (note the later start time — a separate email on this to come).
* Prep Time is 5 minutes.
December 19th, 2011
MDL Concludes 2011 with December Tournament
This past weekend, students from around the city of Milwaukee came together to engage in rigorous debates over the future of U.S. space policy at the fourth MDL tournament of the season. Hosted by the Professional Learning Institute, the December tournament was the largest tournament of the season with over fifty students competing from eight high schools. Rufus King High School took home first place in both the Varsity and JV Divisions, while Vincent High School took home top honors in the Novice Division.
December’s tournament marked the first time that the MDL awarded two specialty awards: the Character Award and the Outstanding Adjudicator Award. Taking home the first-ever Character Award was Cheryl Reuter of PLI. Cheryl not only came to the tournament nearly an hour and a half early to help open rooms and let others into the building, but also demonstrated outstanding leadership in helping teammates prepare for rounds and teaching them about arguments. Justice Platt of Nicolet High School, a veteran MDL coach and judge, took home the Outstanding Adjudicator Award. One special note here is that Mr. Platt was nominated for the award by every student he judged.
Special thanks are due to David Sullivan and the Professional Learning Institute for opening their doors to the MDL. The students of PLI also deserve special recognition for showing up early to help set-up the tournament.
Full tournament results can be found here.
December 14th, 2011
Announcing Two New Specialty Awards
The MDL is pleased to announce that it will be awarding two new specialty awards at December’s MDL tournament, in addition to traditional speaking and team awards.
First, we’ll be giving out what we’re calling the Character Award. The Character Award will be awarded to a student who is an exceptional leader on their team, shows particularly good sportmanship, or otherwise displays outstanding acts of character that deserve special recognition. Students can be nominated by coaches, judges, or tournament observers. Students, however, cannot nominate other students.
Second, we’ll be giving out an Outstanding Adjudicator Award. Here, students can nominate judges who give particularly valuable feedback, or in some other way made their rounds especially educational or enjoyable. We’ll also be looking at ballots in the tab room, so if we receive a ballot that goes above and beyond, we’ll consider that as well when we decide which judge to award.
Nomination forms will be on-hand at the tournament. We’ll also bring attention to them during Opening Announcements, but feel free to take a look at the nomination forms beforehand (attached) and let your students (and judges) know that they exist.
December 6th, 2011
December MDL Tournament Registration Opens
The Milwaukee Debate League is excited to announce that registration is now open for the MDL December Tournament, to be held December 17th at the Professional Learning Institute (2430 West Wisconsin Avenue).
To compete, please keep in mind the following:
* Novice teams are limited to: Moon Base Affirmative and Negative, India DA, Space Debris Affirmative and Negative, and Topicality (all of these can be found in the WDCA packet). Argument summaries are available upon request.
* There are no limits on what arguments the JV and Varsity can run, but teams must fully disclose 1ACs with citations by Monday, December 12 at 5:00 PM. While not required, we strongly urge you to disclose negative arguments as well. Please email all disclosures to billaltorfer@urbandebate.org (see disclosure form in tournament documents section). Disclosed affirmatives will be emailed out and posted on the tournament website on Monday evening.
* We will be offering Novice, JV, and Varsity divisions. These may be collapsed as needed due to numbers.
* Tournament schedule can be found here.
* Prep Time is 5 minutes.
To register, please create a profile on SpeechWire.com and add your email information as your coach contact information, or send your registration information to billaltorfer@urbandebate.org.
