No argument here: These debaters are in top form
Students hone their skills with Boston league
Julio Lanzo and Tyrell Carter are champions of their event. They have to bring their best game to every meet if they want to successfully defend their title and make it to the national championships, as they did last year.
But Lanzo and Carter don't throw footballs, swing baseball bats, or kick soccer balls. They win with words.
The two juniors at the Academy of Public Service are part of the high school's debate team, and one of 28 two-person teams that competed at the Boston Debate League's city championships Friday and yesterday at the Boston University School of Law.
"It's sort of like a sport of the mind. You never know what your opponent is going to bring and you have to prepare for that," said Carter.
The Boston Debate League organizes meets for eight Boston public high schools. The competitions are held on Friday evenings and all day Saturday. At each meet, teams debate over a given resolution. The resolution for the city championships this year asked whether government "should substantially increase alternative energy incentives in the United States."
Each team takes turns arguing for, and then against, the proposition and uses their hours of research to buttress their case.
"There's a lot of sacrifice," said Locksley Bryan, who coaches Lanzo and Carter. "These kids had to meet me this morning at the train at a quarter to six. They have to do this seven or eight Saturdays throughout the year, and they have to give up their Friday evenings, too."
Students at the championships yesterday milled about a law school meeting room and the hallway outside, eating lunch, chatting with their comrades. And honing their arguments.
Frezzella Cullinane, 18, the team captain at Josiah Quincy Upper School, said she got into debate because she "always liked to argue." Neha Safaya, a 20-year-old former debater and judge at the event, said she got into debate to get out of detention.
"The teacher in my detention said I could go to the meeting for 45 minutes, or stay in detention and stare at the wall for a half an hour," said Safaya, who now attends BU. "I decided I might as well go to the meeting. And then I realized it was a lot of fun."
Mary Dibinga, the coach for Charlestown High School, said debate might be seen as an activity for intellectuals, but she sees a surprisingly diverse crowd at the meets.
"It's a wide variety of kids," she said. "We have kids who get really good grades, and kids who are barely getting by in their classes. We have students who spend all their time in detention, except when they're at debate practice."
Boston Debate League executive director Steve Stein said he has seen firsthand that the competition can help youths outside of the debating arena.
"It shows these kids that they can succeed and gives them the tools to do just that," he said.
Cullinane, who is a senior, said she's ready for college, but she's going to miss debate. "I've grown to love these guys," she said, referring to the other Josiah Quincy debaters. "They're like a second family to me. Debate taught me what it is to be faithful and committed in what I do. I've never been committed to anything in my life before."
Carter and Lanzo have been a team for two years. The duo has won every varsity meet this school year and learned yesterday that they will be going to the national championships in Chicago in April, hosted by the National Association for Urban Debate.
While their overall record already had gotten them a ticket to the nationals, Carter and Lanzo ended up triumphing in the city championships, anyway, Stein said last night. The runner-ups were a team from Urban Science Academy.
Lanzo said he'd never expected to become so invested in debating.
"I like debating the negative" against the resolution, he said. "There are so many ways to take it. Two or three words can change the whole argument." 