Barlow Debate Takes Loomis-Chaffee Cup, Again

Debate may rage over whether or not Senators should be allowed to filibuster, but eight students from did not waste a single word this past Sunday as they brought home four honors including the coveted Loomis-Chaffee Cup.

At this tournament held at the Loomis-Chaffee School in Windsor Connecticut and sponsored the Debate Association of Independent Schools (DANEIS), debaters faced three rounds of competition where they were expected to research and prepare cases both for and against the resolution, that the United States Senate should reform its procedures including the filibuster. Awards were given to the top three speakers, the best four and two person teams, and the Cup to the victor of an exhibition round pitting the two best pairs of advanced debaters.

As the only public school represented at the tournament, Barlow's elite team of four advanced debaters collectively went 7-0, earning the second place four-person team award for the day. Individually, all four were in the top eleven speakers out of the hundred students who competed.This finish extends a streak where Barlow has won trophies at each of the five events they have competed in this season.

Earlier in the week, the reigning Connecticut Debate Association state champions, seniors Sam Torchio and Henry Knight informed their coach, teacher Randall Smith, that they were going to win the Loomis tournament. The pair made good on this bold promise, dominating pairs from Deerfield Academy, the Groton School, and Choate-Rosemary Hall in the three preliminary rounds.

Torchio's speaking was so consistently good that he earned the third-place advanced speaker award, his first speaker trophy. Knight, the CDA's top speaker for 2011, was only one point behind in 7th place. Being undefeated and the second-highest scoring pair at the end or the preliminary rounds earned them not only the second-place advanced pair award, but also a shot at the Loomis-Chaffee Cup in the final.

Their opponents were from the famed Phillips Academy Andover, an elite Massachusetts boarding school founded during the Revolutionary War that boasts four U.S. Presidents and dozens of luminaries in virtually every field of human endeavor among its alumni. Their pair included the first-place speaker from last year's Loomis tournament. Barlow lost the coin toss and they were forced to negate the resolution.

Andover lead with a rousing and immaculately-polished speech, denouncing the inefficiency of the filibuster, but things began to unravel quickly for them in the first cross-examination when Torchio went to work, deconstructing their policy proposal. Sam asked them what the longest filibuster was. His opponent confidently answered, recounting the tale of Strom Thurmun's legendary 24 hour and 18 minute talk back in 1957 against a civil rights act. Having taken the bait, Torchio then inquired about how Andover's proposal to limit filibusters to 14 days would have any impact. "How can you claim to make big improvements to laws by banning something that has never happened?" The audience laughed as Andover answered with broad generalities, deliberately avoiding the question.

Knight's research paid off in his opening attack on his opponent's plan to stop secret holds, pointing out the fact that legislation to that effect had been passed by the Senate a year earlier and so therefore would not count as reform. Under cross examination he successfully turned a line of questions about the filibusters use against the civil rights acts into an asset. "In spite of the filibuster, the civil rights acts were passed. There was nothing wrong with taking a long time to think about laws before passing them, and the fact that they were so widely discussed probably help change peoples' minds about the issue. That's why we debate."

Torchio's first speech was the most substantive in the round where he analyzed the fate of two recent laws to illustrate the advantages of long debates and the dangers of short ones. For the former, he discussed how that despite the filibuster, the debate over the Affordable Care Act lead to health care reforms based on private sector competition that appealed more to the center than the public option favored by left. For the latter, he explained how the Senate's hasty adoption of the Patriot Act unwittingly eroded the privacy of American's electronic communications by enabling warrantless searches of email and phone calls.

Barlow's rebuttals sealed the deal when they made several clever arguments. Sam appealed to the judges, discussing how negating the resolution would send a message that the judges valued debate. Henry demanded that in order to win, affirmative must satisfy three criteria, first, to prove with evidence that the senate was broken, second, prove that the filibuster was the key reason for its dysfunction, and third, prove that the reforms they propose would fix it. Unwisely, in their last speech, Andover accepted these criteria asserting with soaring rhetoric that they had proven their points without actually introducing any specific examples as support.

After all was said and done, the panel of five judges awarded the Loomis-Chaffee Cup to Barlow, the second time the school has won the honor. Much like famous Stanley Cup, the award travels to the school of the victor and Knight and Torchio's names will be engraved on it along side those of the Barlow alums who inspired and trained them years before, Jason Kaplan, '08 and Alyssa Bilinski, '09 who won the cup in 2008.

Barlow's other advanced pair, senior Jack Cartafalsa and junior Caroline Ryng also went undefeated, downing competitors from Andover, Choate, and Deerfield. This was a milestone for the veteran Cartafalsa, who in many instances had come within inches of a trophy. His performance against Choate in round two was so strong that the judge set aside the convention of a maximum score of 25 to give him a 27 points. Ryng, a graduate of Barlow's debate class, tied Jack for total speaker points, being consistently praised for smooth delivery and staying cool under fire.

Joel Barlow's novices saw some successes and auspicious beginnings in their first competition against prep-school debaters. In his debate debut, freshman Tommy Cocco went 2-1 and was the 11th place novice speaker. He and partner, freshman Brooke Curto were 2-1 for the day, defeating pairs from Deerfield and Choate. Sophomore David Freeman and freshman Sam Aldershof eked out a close win against Andover in round two.

Several of the team's speakers will compete again later this month at another DANEIS event at the Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford.