James Hamraie of Colleyville Heritage High School, Colleyville, Texas, was the recipient of the 2008 Julia Burke Award for Character and Excellence in National High School Policy Debate. He was coached by David Huston and his sister, Aimi Hamraie. James was chosen from a list of outstanding finalists including Juan Andres Gannon of Damien High School and Dorothy Hector of Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart.  He has chosen The Urban Debate League of Dallas to receive his $1000 charity donation and will be attending Emory University.

 The Julia Burke Award was established to recognize the policy debater who best typifies the combination of qualities that Julia embodied, including excellence in and passion for debate, love and respect for the policy debate community, and a commitment to helping others and maintaining friendships despite the pressures of competition at the highest level.  Julia debated for The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California, and was lost in October 1998 as a result of a car accident.

More information to come in our fall newsletter!  Congratulations James and his coaches, Dave and Aimi!

The NDCA Executive Board is proud to announce the creation of the Dukes & Bailey Cup for season-long competitive excellence in Lincoln-Douglas.  The award will be given out each year to the Lincoln-Douglas debater at the NDCA Championships that has the highest point total on their qualification application.  The winner receives a large travelling cup to be housed at their school for a year and a smaller replica for the winner to keep.

The NDCA is proud to recognize an outstanding LD debater with an award named after two outstanding contributors to our activity, Marilee Dukes and Patricia Bailey.

The NDCA sends heartfelt congratulations to two of our members that were recently announced as NFL Hall of Fame Members.  Congratulations to Chuck Ballingall from Damien High School (CA) and Kandi King from Winston Churchill High School (TX) on this well-deserved honor!  Their induction will take place on June 16th in conjunction with the 2008 NFL Nationals in Las Vegas. 

Congratulations Chuck and Kandi!

Congratulations to NDCA members David Huston (Colleyville Heritage High School, TX) and Aaron Timmons (Greenhill School, TX) on their recent induction in the Tournament of Champions Hall of Fame.  Your fellow NDCA members would like to extend our enthusiastic congratulations to you both!  An honor well-deserved!

St. Mark's Jordan Blumenthal and Alex Katz won the 2008 NDCA Championships in Policy Debate this past Tuesday in Dallas, TX.  The final round was held in Dallas due to flight complications during the tournament.  Blumenthal/Katz on the Aff defeated Colleyville Heritage's Evan DeFillipis and James Hamraie for the NDCA title.  Congratulations to Jordan, Alex, and their coaches, Tim Mahoney and Jason Peterson!

Please use these links to download the ballots from the 2008 NDCA Championships.  All scanned ballots are in PDF form.

LD Ballots, All Debates

Policy Ballots, Rounds 1-2

Policy Ballots Rounds 3-4

Policy Ballots, Rounds 5-7

Race for The Baker Award is on!

The race for The Baker Award is self-reporting.  The Baker Award goes to the top-placing team that attends the NDCA Championships.

Registration for the 2008 NDCA Championships is now available at Joy of Tournaments: http://www.joyoftournaments.com/mi/ndca/info.asp.

 Come join the top 128 policy teams and LDers from across the country in East Lansing, MI on April 12-14.com is available online at http://ndca.debateteams.net. It was also sent out to NDCA members last night.

Make sure to submit an application to Tim Mahoney at pacedebae@aol. in order to be considered.  Applications are available on this website.com

 A few reminders:

You need to send in a spreadsheet to enter the tournament. When you register at the JOT website, you will initially be put on the waiting list. If you send your spreadsheet to Tim Mahoney at

We are anticipating a very competitive, tight Baker Award this year. This is the award that is given to the policy team in attendance at the tournament that demonstrates the highest point total. The award is to recognize season-long excellence.

Lenny Gail has announced the new Executive Director for the National Urban Debate League.  Congratulations to Dr. Scott Deatherage.  The press release is located here http://naudl.org/newcomers_press.htm.

Policy Judge Philosophies - updated Jan 2008

LD Judge Philosophies - updated Jan 2008

Below is the link for the New Coaches Starter Pack. In it you will find topic lectures, starter files that makes it possible to begin debates immediately as well as lectures by some of debates best minds. The second link is for an evidence packet assembled by James Herndon. The files are brief and designed to answer one another

This starter pack will be updated regularly so please check back!

http://ndca.debateteams.net/Portals/0/NDCAStarterPack2007.zip

http://users.carrolltoncityschools.net/~rb14659/evidence.htm

Select " read more" and you will be directed to the Emory Beginning Debate Manuel. A great resource for Introductory Debate