Debating champions

Isabel Coleman and David Zell admit that they did not know much about debate when they joined their school’s public forum debate team. Looking at their ranking as No. 5 public forum debate team in the nation, however, this might be hard to believe.

Coleman and Zell, who live in Birmingham and Mountain Brook, respectively, are seniors at The Altamont School. They will participate in the Tournament of Champions, a national high school tournament, for the third time this April. 

Their success has come after joining debate without an official coach and with around five participants, an experience that has been at times trying and inspiring. Now, they are Altamont’s first team to qualify for this competition and one of three teams in the nation to secure four gold bids to the TOC.  

“There was no intermediate,” Zell said. “We went from being really bad to really good. And so I think, ‘Who are the good debaters this year?’ and I realize, ‘Oh it’s us. We’re in that group.”

As the two seniors look forward to the April competition and graduation in May, they also look forward to leaving behind a legacy at their school.

“On applications, where they ask, ‘What’s your proudest achievement? What meant the most to you about your high school experience?’ This is always my answer,” Coleman said. “Building up the program is always my answer.”

Katherine Berdy, the sponsor for the debate team, said she believes the two seniors hope to leave behind a “top notch debate program” as their legacy.

Coleman joined Altamont’s debate team in her freshman year after searching for an activity that fit her personality. 

“I was a really, really shy kid, like I didn’t talk to anyone, but I loved to argue,” Coleman said. “So I went and I joined the team, and I think I only went to two tournaments myfirst year.”

That year, their team had a teacher who helped the group, Coleman said, but she knew more about individual, speaking-based events than debate itself. Zell joined soon after Coleman, even though he initially didn’t intend to join. 

He started in extemporaneous speaking — where the competitor researches and then speaks for an extended period on a topic — but Zell merged into public forum debate and found a mix of the elements he enjoyed.

“I realized it was the culmination of all the things I’m interested in: research, politics, public speaking, argumentation,” Zell said. “It was the keystone activity.”

At that time, everyone on their team had minimal experience, Zell said. A lot of people didn’t know Altamont had a debate team back then, Coleman added, whereas now they hear a lot about the team.

The turning point, Coleman said, was when they both went to a camp focused in debate. There, they experienced higher levels of debate and different forms of competition — something they said was typical on the national level, but hardly seen in Alabama.

In their junior year, Altamont created a debate class, taught by the school’s newest teacher at the time, and Coleman would help teach. At subsequent camps, Coleman would talk with instructors to learn how she could get better, in addition to how she could improve theschool’s program.

Coleman made herself and example, Berdy said, and worked to create new leaders in underclassmen. That ability to be a student who is helping build and grow a program, she said, is something she sees as unique to Altamont.

“It shows that students' interests, whatever they’re interested in, there’s a community and a culture that wants to support that interest in whatever way possible,” Berdy said. 

Now in their senior year, Coleman leads afterschool practices, and Zell is a teacher’s assistant in a debate class. Even though they feel like they played catch up until their junior years, Zell said it has been inspiring to see how their work has helped the Altamont debate team excel. 

“[Some freshmen] know so much more than we did halfway through our junior year. If we were fifth in the country after just that one year and a couple of months, it’s really hopeful for the Altamont program,” Zell said.

Even though Coleman and Zell will graduate in May, Berdy said she sees enthusiasm in other teams, which she believes will help the program continue to grow.

“I think that the future is actually quite bright, but it’s David and Izzy’s example [that] has been the most motivating component of the team,” Berdy said.

Coleman and Zell said their success “triggered a reaction” from Altamont, in which the school increased its support of the debate program. Both students still pay for all of their travel, however, and said in the future they hope debate can get more financial support. Debate is a cost prohibitive activity, they said, where students who cannot afford to travel to competitions or pay for camps can fall behind. 

“We’re already one of the best teams in the state … but we could be one of the best teams in the southeast, if not the country,” Coleman said. “… I truly believe we have the potential here for a nationally ranked teamfor everybody.”

Editor's note: This article was updated on Feb. 19, 2017 to reflect that Zell is a Mountain Brook resident, and Coleman is a city of Birmingham resident.