Strake Jesuit '19|University of Houston '23

Email Chain: nacurry23@gmail.com and strakejesuitpf@mail.strakejesuit.org

Questions:nacurry23@gmail.com

Tech>Truth – I’ll vote on anything as long as it’s warranted. Read any arguments you want UNLESS IT IS EXCLUSIONARY IN ANY WAY. I feel like teams don't think I'm being genuine when I say this, but you can literally do whatever you want.

Arguments that I am comfortable with:

Theory, Plans, Counter Plans, Disads, some basic Kritiks (Cap, Militarism, and stuff of the sort), meta-weighing, most framework args that PFers can come up with.

Arguments that I am less familiar with:

High Theory/unnecessarily complicated philosophy, Non-T Affs.

Don't think this means you can't read these arguments in front of me. Just explain them well.

Speaking and Speaker Points

I give speaks based on strategy and I start at a 28.

Go as fast as you want unless you are gonna read paraphrased evidence. Send me a doc if you’re going to do that. Also, slow down on tags and author names.

I will dock your speaks if you take forever to pull up a piece of evidence. To avoid this, START AN EMAIL CHAIN.

You and your partner will get +.3 speaker points if you disclose your broken cases on the wiki before the round. If you don't know how to disclose, facebook message me before the round and I can help.

Summary

Extend your evidence by the author's last name. Some teams read the full author name and institution name but I only flow author last names so if you extend by anything else, I’ll be lost.

EVERY part of your argument should be extended (Uniqueness, Link, Internal Link, Impact, and warrant for each).

If going for link turns, extend the impact; if going for impact turns, extend the link.

Miscellaneous Stuff

open cross is fine

flex prep is fine

I require responses to theory/T in the next speech. ex: if theory is read in the AC i require responses in the NC or it's conceded

Defense that you want to concede should be conceded in the speech immediately following when it was read.

Because of the changes in speech times, defense should be in every speech.

In a util round, please don't treat poverty as a terminal impact. It's only a terminal impact if you are reading an oppression-based framework or something like that.

I don't really care where you speak from. I also don't care what you wear in the round. Do whatever makes you most comfortable.

Feel free to ask me questions about my decision.

do not read tricks or you will probably maybe potentially lose

I was a policy debater in the 1990’s and have been coaching since 1999, currently, I am the coach at Avalos P-TECH School. I know that ages me, but it should also tell you that the debate I grew up with was much different than what is going on today. I tend to default to a policy-making paradigm and prefer traditional debate. As a debater, it is your job to be clear at all times so you don’t lose me.

General:

• DON’T BE RUDE

• I DO NOT LIKE DISCLOSURE THEORY OR TRICKS

• It’s fine if you flex prep, just don’t take advantage

• Keep your own time, I will also keep a clock running just in case there are any issues

• I do not consider flashing to be prep, but again don’t take advantage

• Do the work for me, it is your job to communicate to me as to why you are winning the debate. Do not make me figure it out myself, that will inevitably leave one of you mad at me, but it won’t be my fault.

• Discriminatory or exclusionary language is not okay and not accepted and I will vote you down if you use this language

Speed: I am good with moderate speed, but I can’t judge what I can’t understand. Keep in mind that I am old so you probably need to slow down a bit.

Weighing: Please do it. This will make my job a lot easier, and also make it a lot more likely that I see the round the way that you would like me to. I will evaluate the round as you tell me to. If you don’t weigh for me I have to do it for you and you do not want that to happen.

Other:

Please be respectful to one another I hate judging rounds where the debaters are being rude to one another, debate is supposed to be a respectful exchange of opposing views on a topic and when you take the respect out of that equation debate loses its productivity. Also please do the work for the judge, don't make your judge try to piece things together. Remember I am old so I will probably lose pieces along the way.

One last thing, I am old fashioned. You are participating in a speaking event. Stand up during your speeches and CX/CF periods (Grand Cross would be the exception). You need to persuade me as to why I should be voting for you.

Speaker Points:

26-30

Anything under 26 means you were being rude, discriminatory, or exclusionary.

No spreading.

Will not be giving feedback in the room.

Not open to K arguments.

If your impact is nuclear war, the link needs to be very solid.

Thanks!

Debate:

I prefer evidence over pragmatic analysis, yet pragmatism over philosophy.

I am willing to listen to and judge a theory argument even though I may hate having to do it.

Theory over kritiks, but traditional debate over both.

Valid, relevant, credible evidence is a must. If your evidence is from questionable sources, or biased, or generally in contrast to what I know about the topic I am going to put more weight on analytics as a sort of check on reasonability.

Clarity and content over spreading. I’m too old and have been to too many concerts and don’t want to try and decipher what you are saying.

Less emphasis on topicality, higher burden of proof.

Don’t rely on voters to win your round, I will flow your round.

Sort of a combo of: stock issues, tab, games, speaking, hypothesis.

Conviction.

Speech:

Make it interesting and enjoyable to listen to, quality evidence over quantity, don’t throw out a bunch of garbage evidence just to fill your speech. Virtual delivery is tough, I am proud of all of you in this manner.

Any preferences with respect to blocking, movement, etc. in a virtual world? Do your best in this crazy time.

If character work adds to the quality, it's great. If it does not, it’s a distraction. Use it when necessary, the more differentiation (when you have multiple characters) the better. Don’t rely on character work if your characters all sound/act the same, it gets confusing.

Author's intent and appropriateness of a piece: Tough/mature topics are difficult to do,if you do it well, it goes far. It takes conviction for sure. It needs to be believable, some students just arent ready to speak on these types of topics. I will not drop you because of appropriateness so long as you can, with conviction, speak on the topic or with the language.

I'll start with this, since it seems to be the only question anyone cares about anymore: if you scale speed on a 1-10, with 10 being as fast as humanly possible, I prefer a 3-5 depending on the time of day (lower in the early morning or later evening).

Now, if you want more nuance: I'm the coach at Clear Lake High School in southeast Houston. I previously coached (and attended high school/competed at) Deer Park High School in Deer Park, TX. I've been a head coach for thirteen years and judging for the past eighteen.

As a CX judge, I find myself becoming more and more of a policymaker-style judge. I am a flow judge and am okay with moderate to faster levels of speed, however as an educator I feel that this is a communication event first. I'm not going to call for a bunch of cards if I didn't hear them, so please make sure I can actually understand you. Unless I'm judging virtually, I don't want to be on the email chain. On DisAds, I can't stand generic links and am incredibly unlikely to vote on them. Make sure your internal links also follow some kind of logical train of thought and tell a coherent story. I will vote on topicality, but I have a pretty high threshold for what I consider reasonably T. I don't love kritiks or deep theory debates but I'm also loathe to tell a debater that they can't run them at all just because of my personal feelings. With that said, please make sure that you explain your kritikal arguments, since philosophy has never been my forte.

As an LD judge, I do not have the experience as a competitor and judge that I do for CX. Because of that, understand I might need my hand proverbially held a bit if you dive deep into philosophy. I prefer a slower, traditional/old school style LD round with a strong emphasis on that quaint notion of a value framework. If you've somehow read the last couple of sentences and still think I'm the kind of judge that you should run tricks in front of... let me be clear that I'm very much not. If that's not the kind of judge you want - and I recognize that what I've written sets me far apart from the norm as far as what LD has become - then I encourage you to rank me as low as MJP will allow you. It'll make my life and yours much better.

I feel that PF shouldn't require paradigms (seriously, can we go back to the original intent of this event?), but since we're here... I really despise rudeness in crossfire, and I want to see a solid line-by-line throughout the debate with good impacting at the end. Don't overthink this.

I love Congress. I absolutely adore the event. If I'm in the back of a Congress round I'm a happy camper and I want to see polished, extemp-style speeches that show thought went into them. I also expect to see either clash or new argumentation in the speeches following the first couple of bill cycles, otherwise I feel the debate grows stale and boring. I want to see an attempt at collegiality and a little sprinkle of LARP'ing never hurt anyone.

I've never judged or even watched a WSD round in my life, but I'm coming around to the event and want to learn. If I'm in the back of your Worlds round... consider me a flay judge.

A quick run-down for speech/interp paradigms, since evidently that's a thing now?

Extemp: I love this event and for my money I think this is the best event we have as far as portable skills are concerned. I don't want or need you to be a citation machine, I'd prefer you take a handful of sources and build solid analysis around them.

OO/Info: These are my favorite events to watch and judge, and I love how much of an opportunity they give students to showcase their own unique voices. I like humor but don't want this to be stand up comedy (you're not Josh Gad, and that's perfectly okay). I want a clean performance with solid, memorable analysis. In Info, I love when the visual is something outside the norm; one of the most memorable Infos I've ever judged used a sealed plastic cup filled with water and an egg, and I still remember that (many) years later.

POI: I don't judge POI often but every time I do I'm blown away by how creative students can get within its parameters. I want to see a POI that's seamlessly blended and brings in as many disparate genres as possible. As with all interp, I want to see and hear the "story" you're telling me come alive. I also really like the idea of POI as a form of argumentation, so if I can see that clearly throughout your piece all the better for me. My thoughts on POI also cover (with obvious changes for the rules/norms) my thoughts on Prose and Poetry, for what that's worth.

HI/DI/Duet/Duo: I'm looking at the totality of the performance. Much like I mentioned on POI, I want to see and hear your script come to life through the interpretation. It's exceptionally rare that I get to judge these (I can't tell you the last time I have, to be honest), so I don't go into these rounds with any real expectations. I just want to be wowed overall.

I am a former CX competitor from the late 80s and early 90s from a small 3A district. To that end, my experience and preference falls within the traditional range and not progressive. While I can understand the nuances of it and appreciate its overall intent, it goes well outside of the traditional realm that I prefer. I want clear line by line, clash and impacts that are meaningful and arguments that are well fleshed out. I don't need theoretical situations and kritiks of the resolution. Debate what is given to you as the framers intended it to be debated. I would rather have one or two solid arguments that are carried through a round as opposed to superfluous argumentation that ends up being kicked out of anyway or that operates in a world that is far less meaningful than traditional argumentation.

When it comes to extemp, I am also a traditionalist and expect a speech that is well balanced and that answers the prompt a contestant has been given. (Attention Getter/Hook - Thesis - Points - Conclusion that wraps up). Source variety is as important to me as is the number of sources. Fluidity is the real key. Don't make the speech choppy and don't offer so much content that you are unable to go back and analyze what you've spoken about. This is particularly true when it comes to lots of stats and numbers; don't overload a speech with content on that level that there is no real understanding of how you have synthesized the information you've given. And if you are also a debater, please remember - this is a SPEAKING event, not a debate event.

For topics that err on the side of persuasive and controversial, I DO NOT have an issue with topics that you feel could be flash-points that you think bias will impact the outcome. As long as you can substantiate and articulate what you are talking about with credible information and good analysis, we'll be good and the ballot will be free of bias.