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Local school’s team joined four other schools as co-national champion.
Members of the Meyers High School debate team, posing with the trophy they won after being named co-national champions after a competition in Albany, N.Y., are, from left, Adam McGahee, Jordan McGroarty, John Lisman, Kevin Watters, Erik Carlson, Gabby Richards, and Matthew Manarski.
Don Carey/the times leader
WILKES-BARRE – The Ismails might have put E.L. Meyers High School in Sports Illustrated magazine, but the debate team makes it a national contender.
The team was named co-national champion over the weekend at the finals in Albany, N.Y., and senior John Lisman placed second in personal elocution.
With professional black dresses, power suits and French cuffs as their uniforms, seven Meyers students topped about 2,500 other students from perhaps 500 schools – many of them private with paid programs – to join four other schools in claiming the 58th annual National Catholic Forensic League championship.
There’s more competition ahead in June for the top three finishers. Seniors John Lisman, Erik Carlson and Matt Manarski head off to Birmingham, Ala., to compete in championships for the NFL – the National Forensic League. Other members of the squad that went to nationals were senior Jordan McGroarty and sophomores Gabby Richards, Adam McGahee and Kevin Watters.
Just like in sports, the competitors agree there’s more to gain than trophies. “It wasn’t always something I was interested in,” said Carlson, who joined after seeing Lisman and Manarski involved. “Public speaking was a skill I wanted to hone.”
Eloquence under public scrutiny was a common theme for the members, including McGahee and McGroarty, who said she’s hoping to become a lawyer.
There’s also the benefit of acclimating to constant change. Manarski and Carlson, who finished within the top 16 in their event, compete as a pair in public-forum debate, the topic for which changes monthly. And because of that, Carlson said, success must be re-evaluated routinely based on the topic at hand.
For Lisman and Watters, who compete in an extemporaneous speech-making category, change is as expected as quality. Competitors are given a topic and 30 minutes to prepare a 7-minute speech that includes six to a dozen cited sources. Understandably, the students carry around boxes in which important headlines and news clippings are filed.
Topics can range from “elections in small African countries,” as coach Joseph Borland noted, to Thailand’s prime minister, a topic Lisman was actually tasked with discussing. “I had a file on it,” he said. “If you want to be a b.s.-er, you can certainly try, but at some point you have to back yourself up.”
Though the debate is individual, Lisman said Watters acted like a teammate, helping develop his strategies and tactics. It worked well enough to earn Lisman second place in the event at Albany. Watters said he hopes to find a seventh- or eighth-grader with whom he can partner when Lisman graduates.
Beyond the personal accolades, the debaters said the real honor was bringing home the victory for their coaches, who volunteer year-round.
Manarski called it “probably one of the proudest things I’ve done in my life,” and McGahee said “it felt just like a scene out of a movie.”
In fact, the coaches had taken the team to see the film “The Great Debaters,” and winning in Albany held the same drama, Richards said. “We were thinking about going to Jack’s Oyster House for dinner” when the winners were announced, she said, and immediately, Sarah Borland, an attorney and Meyers graduate who started the team 12 years ago, burst into tears.
“I didn’t think we’d ever do it, to tell you the truth,” said Ruth Borland, an attorney who helped her daughter start the program. Her husband, Kim – also an attorney – and son Joseph – studying to be a lawyer – are also coaches and judges, along with a host of former teammates’ parents who continue to volunteer.
“It’s really, I think, we’re happy for Meyers. We don’t think Meyers gets enough credit for what goes on here,” Kim said.