The History of the Eastview Debate Team

 

 

Beginnings (1997-1998)

 

Eastview High School in Apple Valley, MN opened in the fall of 1997.  Eastview HS was committed to offering its students a full range of co-curricular activities including debate.  In the Spring of 1997, Eastview hired Todd Hering as head debate coach.  Hering had completed 6 seasons as a coach at Stillwater High School (3 as head coach).  During the summer, Hering hired Renee Kraft and Maggie Weller recent graduates from St. Francis High School as assistant coaches. 

 

Students came to Eastview from other district high schools, mostly Eagan and Rosemount.  Eastview was fortunate to have several talented incoming sophomores with debate experience join their team.  In particular, Alli Gilmore and Lynda Lao from Eagan and Nick Napolitan from Rosemount would become cornerstones of the new team at Eastview.

 

In its first year Eastview offered both policy and Lincoln-Douglas debate.  Hering and Kraft worked with the policy debaters and Weller coached Lincoln-Douglas.  Several talented novices joined Gilmore, Lao, and Napolitan to round-out the roster.  Standouts included Brien Baker, Justin Fay, Justin Knoepfler, Masha Marchevsky, and Jody Ward. 

 

In its first year, the Eastview debate team worked to create a successful culture.  With debaters and coaches coming from various backgrounds, it took considerable effort to unify the team.  In terms of competition, Eastview did quite well considering its young team.  The highlight of the year was winning the Governor’s Cup traveling sweepstakes trophy at the Mankato West debate tournament.  Eastview would go on to win that award the next two years.

 

1998-1999

 

The core of the 1997-1998 team and the coaching staff returned for the 1998-1999 season.  One addition to the coaching staff was head speech coach and EVHS English teacher Jennifer McCarty.  McCarty worked with a fine group of novice Lincoln-Douglas debaters including Andrea Swensson who would go on to coach at Eastview.

 

The 1998-1999 season saw more competitive success and a large group of novices who would go on to have fine debate careers including Jacob Bennett, Aaron Berger, Jeremiah Chung, Danielle Cirelli, Christin Friley, Andy Harrison, Jay Kemp, and Andrea Swensson.  Mike Lee, a senior at Eastview, not only joined the team, but he qualified for state at the varsity level.

 

Eastview qualified three individuals to the state tournament during the 1998-199 season.  Allison Gilmore teamed with novice Mike Lee to qualify in policy debate and Nick Napolitan qualified in Lincoln-Douglas. 

 

With a strong nucleus of returning talent, the 1999-2000 season promised to be Eastview’s most successful. 

 

1999-2000

 

Heading into the season, Renee Kraft continued to coach policy debate, but Maggie Weller did not have enough time in her schedule to coach varsity Lincoln-Douglas.  Without Weller, the LD crew was largely self-coached at the varsity level.  McCarty continued to work with novices.  The more experienced students dealt with several temporary coaches and ended up relying primarily on senior Nick Napolitan’s leadership to get through the season.  Napolitan qualified for state for the second straight season.  Another bright spot was the addition of future stars Maya Gross, Zach Prax, and Abby Ries in LD. 

 

On the policy side, 1999-2000 couldn’t have gone much better.  One important addition was coach Sarah Fellows, a former State runner-up and national qualifier from Eagan HS.  Fellows joined Hering and Kraft to give Eastview a deep and experienced staff.  The team was strong from varsity through novice.  Policy newcomers included Betsy Anderson, Andy Crichton, Jennifer Halvorson, Josh Stager, Tyler Stokes and Dina Vaynerman.  Stager and Vaynerman had an outstanding year that included capturing the Novice Policy State Championship.  Even though he was in his novice year, Stager was named an alternate to the Section tournament in policy debate.  He was pressed into action when Allison Gilmore, who had been ill, lost her voice during the tournament. 

 

The varsity team was also strong and deep.  After debating with novice partners at the Section I tournament for the past two seasons, Allison Gilmore was paired with Masha Marchevsky.  Marchevsky had a great senior year and the team of Gilmore and Marchevsky, with the help of Stager, qualified for the state tournament.  They went on to reach State semi-finals and become national qualifiers.  Additionally, senior Justin Fay had a great season also qualifying for state with his eventual partner Christin Friley.  Fay and Friley narrowly missed advancing to quarter-finals at state. 

 

The arrival of Classic Debate

 

While Eastview was coming off a good year in policy debate, the activity was changing rapidly.  Teams that spoke at a fast rate and emphasized arguments that were less “real-world” began to have more and more competitive success.  Part of the reason for this was that policy resolutions tended to be very broad, allowing the affirmative team to choose from dozens of plans and making it difficult for the negative team to prepare.  As a result, many debaters began to rely on complex debate theory arguments and philosophy instead of arguing realistic advantages and disadvantages of actions.  Additionally more and more time from coaches and competitors was required in order to be competitive.  The new climate in policy debate was welcomed by some, but many others found the activity less appealing than it once was. 

 

Among those who disliked the new direction that policy debate was taking was the Eastview head coach.  Hering, along with Mike Vergin at Mounds Park Academy, pioneered a new debate format called classic debate.  For the Eastview team, the decision was made to phase out policy debate and replace it with classic debate.  Classic debate was marked by specific resolutions that would encourage real-world debate and a new time format that would eliminate some of the need to speak fast.  Further, most tournaments would be one day instead of two and the season would consist of seven dates instead of the ten or more that policy teams were used to. 

 

The creation of classic debate was highly controversial both at Eastview and in the debate community in Minnesota.  Supporters felt that classic debate was more livable (because of the shorter schedule), more teachable (because much of the jargon and theory of policy debate was eliminated), and more educational (because the style of speaking and issues debated were more “real-world”).  Opponents of classic debate felt that it was not as challenging or rigorous as policy debate.  They saw the sophistication and fast-paced nature of policy debate to be highly educational and stimulating. 

 

2000-2001

 

Entering the 2000-2001 season, the Eastview team was in transition.  Novices would choose between classic and Lincoln-Douglas debate.  Experienced debaters would choose among all three.  The coaching staff was also in some flux.  Jennifer McCarty, a new mother, resigned her debate position.  Sarah Fellows took the head coaching job at Minneapolis South High School.  The new addition to the staff was Masha Marchevsky who was going to college at Macalester.  Renee Kraft was back for her 4th year at Eastview.  Kraft and Marchevsky coached policy.  Hering with help from Nick Napolitan early in the year coached Lincoln-Douglas.  Hering also coached classic in its first year.

 

The policy team, undoubtedly unhappy with being “phased-out,” struggled through a lot of uncertainty.  The policy team lost Gilmore, Marchevsky, Fay, Lao, and Ward to graduation and Friley and Berger to different schools.  The teams of Andy Crichton and Jay Kemp and Danielle Cirelli and Brian Burke emerged as the Section tournament entries with David Miles serving as the alternate.  These five deserve credit for fighting through a tough year—both teams qualified for state.  After the season, with few returning policy debaters and no coach (Kraft and Marchevsky were not returning), the decision was made to discontinue the policy debate program. 

 

In Lincoln-Douglas debate, the team was boosted by the return of Justin Knoepfler who had taken his junior year off from debate.  Knoepfler and Andrea Swensson won all-conference awards at the very difficult Lake Conference Debate tournament.  They combined with second-year debaters Maya Gross, Zach Prax, and Abby Ries and novices Allie Berger, Mark DiPasquale, and Jer Maskel to form a formidable squad.  Eastview captured the overall team sweepstakes award at the prestigious Minneapple debate tournament.  Knoepfler became the first Eastview debater to win the Section I championship, amassing a perfect record in section competition.  Swensson had her best tournament at the NFL National qualifier, coming close to making nationals. 

 

The classic debate experiment proved successful.  About twelve schools joined the Classic Debate League in its first year.  The Eastview team led by returning veterans who chose to do classic like Jacob Bennett, Jeremiah Chung, Jenny Halvorson, Glen Olson, and Tyler Stokes.  Novices included Matt Albrecht, Annika Carlson, Brent Graner, Nick Kariya, Ishanaa Rambachan, and Dane Sorensen.  Senior and first-year debater Kyle Robinson went right to varsity and teamed with Jeremiah Chung.  Eastview dominated the first-ever Classic Debate State Championship held at Simley high school.  Eastview had five of the eight semi-finalists:  Chung and Robinson were co-champions with Bennett and Olson.  Kariya and Albrecht finished third.  Carlson and Rambachan and Halvorson and Stokes were quarter-finalists.  NFL Executive Secretary James Copeland attended the tournament to show his support.

 

2001-2002

 

The season began with several new faces on the Eastview coaching staff.  New Eastview teacher Susan Kinney joined the staff to work with classic debate while both Justin Knoepfler and Andrea Swensson, 2001 graduates, stayed with Eastview as coaches. 

 

The Lincoln-Douglas team was led by Maya Gross, Zach Prax and Glen Olson (who was successful in all 3 debate formats that Eastview offered).  A strong group of novices included Victoria Booth, James Hohmann, Joseph Moschera, and Chris Knoepfler.  Maya Gross, the top LD debater, qualified for state.

 

The classic debaters also had a good year.  Team leaders included Brian Burke, Annika Carlson, Jeremiah Chung, Brent Graner, Jennifer Halvorson, David Miles, Nick Kariya, Ishanaa Rambachan, Dane Sorensen, and Josh Stager.  They were joined by an extremely talented group of novices including Erik Didrikson, David DiPasquale, Jennifer Henderson, Britta Nicholson, Sean Olson, Megan Reishus, Daniella Voysey, Jeff Walls, and Ross Wetjen and several other successful debaters.  Along with the LDers mentioned above, this was arguably Eastview’s most talented and successful novice class ever. 

 

The classic team had another great year.  A season-sweepstakes award was created with the Governor’s Cup as the prize based on overall team performance.  Eastview not only captured the cup, but “closed out” the varsity championship for the second year in a row and captured the novice championship.  In varsity Jeremiah Chung and Ishanaa Rambachan along with Nick Kariya and Dane Sorensen were named co-champions.  In the novice division, Megan Reishus and Daniella Voysey won the championship. 

 

2002-2003

 

 

The 2002-2003 season was marked by strong performances and stability.  There was one coaching change—Eastview graduate Nick Napolitan replaced Andrea Swensson.  Napolitan joined Hering, Kinney, and Knoepfler.  Eastview had a successful season in both Lincoln-Douglas and Classic debate.

 

The 2002-2003 team was led by seniors Brian Burke, Annika Carlson, Jennifer Halvorson, Nick Kariya, David Miles, and Zach Prax and by juniors Brent Graner, Sean Olson, Ishanaa Rambachan, Dane Sorensen, and Jeff Walls.  

 

A strong group of novices included Stacey Birk, Wes Branning, Kevin Burke, Mike Carter, Josh Ericson, Zach Erickson, Casey Frank, Pat Kallal, Mike Miesen, and Chris Morgan.

 

For the first time, the Minnesota State High School League sponsored the awards at the Classic Debate Championship festival held at South St. Paul High School.  Eastview advanced all four of its teams to the elimination rounds.  Dane Sorensen and Jeff Walls, Nick Kariya and David Miles, Brent Graner and Steven Schebler all were quarter-finalists.  Junior Ishanaa Rambachan and sophomore Daniella Voysey defeated Erik Sand and Liz kraut from MPA to win the first-ever MSHSL sponsored Classic State Championship.  

 

Eastview’s success at the championship also extended to the JV and novice divisions as well.  In JV, Sarah Hudson and Shawna Persaud and Erik Didrikson and Britta Nicholson closed out the JV championship.  In novice, Mike Carter and Pat Kallal and Zach Erickson and Mike Miesen closed out the Novice championship. 

 

In LD debate, Zach Prax and Sean Olson qualified for the state tournament after having successful seasons. 

 

 

2003-2004

The 2003-2004 Eastview debate team will be remembered for its plethora of talented and experienced debaters.  Seniors Brent Graner, Ishanaa Rambachan, and Dane Sorensen were novices the first year that classic debate existed.  They entered their senior seasons looking to add to the long list of prior accomplishments.  They were joined by fellow seniors David DiPasquale, Jospeh Moschera, Sean Olson, Steven Schebler, Jeff Walls, Ross Wetjen, and Victor Wong. 

 

Eastview’s 2003-2004 season saw continued success in Minnesota. And,  in June, Eastview made its first major impact on the national debate scene. 

 

At the Classic Championship in December, Eastview was once again able to qualify three teams for the elimination rounds.  Juniors Daniella Voysey teamed with James Hohmann to capture the State Championship.   Erik Didrikson and Steven Schebler were semi-finalists and Brent Graner and Dane Sorensen were quarter-finalists. 

 

Eastview’s novice class was smaller than in recent years.  Nevertheless, Jeff Amoaka, Chris Augustinack, Chris Boyd, Tom Carter, David Dann, Alex Rodich, Claire Sagstuen, and Phil Zeller, among others, emerged to help lead the team to a narrow victory in the Governor’s Cup race.

 

In Lincoln-Douglas competition, David DiPasquale and Sean Olson led the way, both having excellent seasons and qualifying for the state tournament.

 

At the NFL National Debate tournament in Salt Lake City, Dane Sorensen and Jeff Walls entered the tournament in public forum debate—Eastview’s first debate team at nationals since 2000 (Gilmore and Marchevsky).  Sorensen and Walls made the most of their opportunity advancing all the way to the national final round before losing a narrow decision in finals.  The strength of their performance, along with a great showing by Eastview’s speech team, meant that Eastview High School was named one of only four National Schools of Excellence in Debate and Speech. 

 

The 2003-2004 team was again coached by Hering, Kinney, Knoepfler, and Napolitan. 

 

2004-2005

 

Once again, entering the 2004 season, Eastview was led by a group of experienced and accomplished seniors.  Victoria Booth, Erik Didrikson, Jennifer Henderson, James Hohmann, Chris Knoepfler, Britta Nicholson, and Daneilla Voysey all had three years of successful debate experience heading into the season. 

 

As Nick Napolitan headed for law school at Columbia University, the coaching staff welcomed Jeff Walls and David DiPasquale to join Hering, Kinney, and Knoepfler.  

 

In Lincoln-Douglas debate Chris Knoepfler (LD Debater of the Year), Booth, and Casey Frank all had successful seasons, with Knoepfler qualifying for the state tournament.  Veterans Hohmann and Voysey bolstered the LD ranks and made significant contributions of their own.  Voysey competed at the Section tournament and finished second qualifying for State along with Knoepfler.  This was a remarkable accomplishment considering that this was her very first LD tournament.  Hohmann became the first LD debater in Eastview history to qualify for nationals.  With only one week to prepare for the district tournament, Hohmann went on to survive the highly competitive double elimination tournament by defeating Apple Valley HS debaters in four straight rounds.

 

There were three questions heading into the classic season:  Could the seniors continue Eastview’s impressive run of Classic debate success?  Would the juniors excel enough to replace these seniors in 2005-2006?  And, would a strong group of novices emerge to continue Eastview’s successful tradition?  By the end of the season, the answer to all three of the questions was clearly yes.

 

For the first time since MSHSL sponsorship began, Eastview closed out the state championship round.  Hohmann (Classic Debater of the Year) and Didrikson (Most Improved Debater of the Year) became state champions and Henderson and Nicholson were the runner-ups.  Voysey (Teammate of the Year) and junior Mike Carter were semi-finalists and Zach Erickson and Wes Branning were quarter-finalists.  Stacey Birk and Josh Ericson (JV Debater of the Year) were the JV champions.  And, Colin Desmond and Roger Garrison and Alex Chen and Jake Branchaud-Linsk closed out the novice round to become co-champions.  Eastview also retained the Governor’s Cup.

 

The junior class represented itself very well, with Carter, Erickson, Branning, Pat Kallal, and Mike Miesen having very successful varsity seasons.  The novice class was also successful led by Jake Branchaud-Linsk, Alex Chen , Colin Desmond, Christine Fifield, Roger Garrison, Marisa Gage, Shishira Kothur, Scott Mathews, Alison Prater, Akshar Rambachan (Novice Debater of the Year), Deepti Reddy and many others.

 

In Public Forum debate, Mike Carter and Erik Didrikson qualified for nationals.  At the national tournament, Carter and Didrikson made it all the way to the 10th round, finishing among the top 25 teams in the country. 

 

2005-2006

 

The 2005-2006 season will be remembered for Eastview’s best-ever showing at the state Lincoln-Douglas debate tournament, the emergence of a tremendous novice class, and strong seasons for another great group of graduating seniors.

 

Seniors Stacey Birk, Mike Carter, Zach Erickson, and Mike Miesen were team captains in 2005-2006.  The coaching staff consisted of returning coaches Todd Hering, David DiPasquale, Ishanaa Rambachan, and Jeff Walls.  They were joined new coaches Randy Bailey (EVHS math teacher) and Daniella Voysey (2005 EVHS Graduate). 

 

77 students debated for Eastview in 2005-2006, making it the largest team in school history.  The team was bolstered by the arrival of 44 novices--a large, talented, and enthusiastic group.  Colin Burke, Serena Calder, Mike Danley, Emily Geary, Tarini Goyal, Ally Huang, Ben Johnson, Barbara Marchevsky, Patrick Moran, Adam Overig, Keith Rice, Elana Siegel, Sarah Schaenzer, and Josh Tollefson all won either first or second place at an invitational tournament during the season.  At the championship tournament, Greg Berman & Patrick Moran (Novice Debater of the Year) and Josh Noah & Myles Torell closed out the final round to become 2005 Classic Debate novice co-champions. 

 

The JV and varsity debaters had strong seasons as well.  The JV team was led by Scott Matthews (JV Debater of the Year) who complied a 31-5 record and placed in every tournament.  At the varsity level, seniors Wes Branning, Mike Carter, Zach Erickson, Michael Lenz, and Mike Miesen and sophomore Akshar Rambachan led the way with all-conference performances.  Branning and Miesen were State Runner-ups and Carter and Erickson were State Semi-finalists.  Eastview won the Governor’s Cup, the award for the best overall Classic debate team, for the 5th straight season. 

 

For the first time, Eastview began to participate in Public Forum debate during the season.  Chris Augustinack, Stacey Birk, Josh Ericson, and Alisha Santoorjian all won first or second place at public forum tournaments.  Kasia Bartczak and Mariya Leyderman finished second in the JC division at the Public Forum state tournament. 

 

Stacey Birk and Alisha Santoorjian qualified for the National tournament in Public Forum debate.  This was the third straight year that Eastview qualified a team to nationals.

 

The biggest breakthrough for the debate program came in the Lincoln-Douglas division.  For the first time, Eastview didn’t have anyone participate in LD debate during the regular season.  That didn’t stop Mike Carter and sophomore Jake Branchaud-Linsk from winning first and third in Section I competition and advancing to state.  At state both Carter and Branchuad-Linsk advanced to the elimination rounds, the first time in school history that an Eastview student accomplished this in LD debate.  Carter finished as the State Runner-up and Branchaud-Linsk was a State Semi-finalist.

 

2006-2007

 

2006-2007 Team Highlights

¨      93 People debated, a school record

¨      Eastview retained the Governor’s Cup, the Classic Debate Season Championship

¨      15 of 19 Eastview teams had a winning record at the Classic State Tournament

¨      8 of 12 Eastview teams had a winning record at the Public Forum State Tournament

¨      Eastview finished as the varsity runner-up in both Classic and Public Forum debate

¨      Eastview qualified a team for nationals in Public Forum debate for the 4th straight year

¨      Eastview qualified two people for the state Lincoln-Douglas debate tournament

¨      Eastview currently ranks as the 10th largest NFL school in the nation (as of 1-16-07)

 

 

 

2007-2008

 

The 2007-2008 season was arguably the finest in team history.  Led by a great senior class, the team had a high level of participation and outstanding competitive success. 

 

One hundred students debated in 2007-2008, a school record.  Our team philosophy has always been to make debate available to as many students as we can.  So, achieving this level of participation is a major accomplishment. 

 

Due to the large size of the team, a successful season depended on the support of student leaders, coaches, and parents.  All three groups made fantastic contributions to the team.  Many students, both captains and other team members, provided stellar leadership this season.  For example, varsity students were very active in mentoring younger team members.  The coaching staff was dedicated to providing students with the guidance that they needed to succeed.  And, parents played the vital role of volunteer judges and supported the team in many other ways.  Parents donated $6,360 in time and money to the debate program during the season.  One of the great stories of 2007-2008 is how many people contributed to the team’s success.

 

Competitively, Eastview participated in three formats:  Classic debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and Public Forum debate.  Definitely one of the highlights of the year is the fact that we were consistently strong in all of these formats.  Eastview won the season championship in all three classic divisions and two public forum divisions.  We qualified students to nationals in two formats.  Our students finished in first place 12 different times at invitational tournaments.  Competitively, it is difficult to imagine a more successful season.

 

2007-2008 Team Highlights

¨      100 People debated, a school record

¨      Eastview retained the Governor’s Cup, the Classic Debate Championship Sweepstakes

¨      Eastview won the Classic debate state championship in the varsity, junior varsity, and novice divisions

¨      Eastview won the Public Forum championship in the varsity and junior varsity divisions

¨      Eastview qualified a team for nationals in Public Forum debate for the 5th straight year

¨      Eastview qualified an individual for the Lincoln-Douglas national debate tournament

¨      Eastview currently ranks as the 11th largest NFL school in the nation

 

 

 

 

Note:  This history was compiled by Todd Hering relying on both memory and available documentation.  Please contact Todd.Hering@District196.org if you observe any inaccuracies or oversights.