Tomorrow, the 2011 National Forensic League (NFL) National Tournament kicks off in Dallas, Texas. Saturday evening the tournament will conclude and we will have our International and United States Extemp national champions and this year’s National Points Race standings will be finalized.
Extemp Central weighs in on six questions that surround this year’s national tournament.
Question #1: How many National Points Race points will Nathaniel Donahue get to in the National Points Race?
Donahue, who competes for Durham Academy in North Carolina, has run away with the National Points Race this season. At all but one National Points Race event, which was the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions, he has placed no lower than second. His eight top three finishes are a National Points Race record and he has already set the record for most points gained in a season. Donahue currently has 665 points and winning United States Extemp and winning the final round would net him 225 additional points, bringing his season ending total to 890 and setting a mark that will be very challenging for future extempers to break.
Question #2: Will California continue its run of national champions at NFL?
The last decade of extemp has been dominated by three states: Minnesota, California, and Massachusetts. In the last ten years, Minnesota has taken seven national championships (Kevin Troy – ’03 USX & ’05 IX, James Hohmann – ’04 & ’05 USX, Ishanaa Rambachan – ’04 IX, Alex Stephenson – ’07 USX, and Akshar Rambachan – ’08 IX). Minnesota is likely to walk away with another title this year if Dylan Slinger can build on his victory at CFL and walk away with the International Extemp title, which would be his third major championship in two years. Massachusetts only netted one overall extemp title from 2001 to 2010 (Becca Goldstein in 2008 USX, with Ron Kendler winning the final round IX national title in 2005), but had an impressive string of finalists in the early half of the decade. California has gained momentum in recent years, with two national championships over the last two years (Evan Larson – ’09 USX and Jacob Baker – ’10 IX) and will be looking to wrestle away another in 2011. Its best chance to do so? Maybe Kevin Ye of Gabrielino High School, who placed eighth in USX last year and placed fourth at this year’s Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin.
Question #3: Which underclassmen will emerge as favorites for next year’s NFL national tournament?
There are several underclassmen in the National Points Race that will be looking to position themselves for next year at NFL. Ben Constine is the highest ranked underclassmen in the National Points Race and has won the Extemp TOC this year. Constine will be in IX with Isabelle Taft, who has notched victories at Wake Forest and Emory as a sophomore and finished fourth at CFL nationals a couple of weeks ago. A dark horse to take into consideration is Ashesh Rambachan of Eastview High School in Minnesota. Rambachan make semi-finals in International Extemp last season and will likely be a factor this year. Jason Singh of Green Valley High School in Nevada is the highest ranked underclassmen in the National Points Race who is doing United States Extemp, so he will be looking to make his mark on the tournament.
Question #4: How will the laptop experiment go?
This is the first NFL nationals that will allow extempers to use laptops in the prep room. Extempers will not be able to plug their laptops into the wall of the prep room, since NFL rules call for the laptops to be battery powered, but the tournament may tax batteries that are not well maintained. Extemp Central wishes to remind all participants of this nuance in the rules because we do not want any readers to be left without files if their laptops run out of power during the tournament.
Question #5: Will Dylan Slinger pull off CFL & NFL national championships in the same year?
Prior to 2005, no extemper had ever won CFL and NFL nationals in the same year. Some extempers, like Lucas Kline in 1999 and Courtney Otto in 2004, came close, but were unable to accomplish the feat. In 2005, Kevin Troy won both (and accomplished the unique feat of winning USX and IX in a career, something that may not happen again) and Akshar Rambachan accomplished the CFL/NFL double crown a mere three years later. Slinger came within one placing of doing this last year and he has won two of the last three national championship tournaments. However, last year Slinger was in United States Extemp and he is switching categories this year, which puts him in with more National Points Race participants. As an interesting aside, if Slinger were to make the IX final round and win it he would become the first extemper in NFL history to win the final round trophies for USX and IX in a career.
Question #6: Who will win?
This is a question that people try to predict leading up to NFL. Extemp Central polled five previous NFL participants who have studied this year’s national circuit results and come to their own conclusions. Extemp Central has preserved all participants anonymity, but none of those polled are attending this year’s NFL, which was a prerequisite because we did not want to poison the judging pool. Those polled were asked to pick the winner of each category.
Extemper #1: IX-Dylan Slinger, USX-Kevin Ye
Extemper #2: IX-Dylan Slinger, USX-Nathaniel Donahue
Extemper #3: IX-Dylan Slinger, USX-Jared Odessky
Extemper #4: IX-Dylan Slinger, USX-Nathaniel Donahue
Extemper #5: IX-Ashesh Rambachan, USX-Nathaniel Donahue
Extemp Central wishes all of the extempers who are participating in this year’s NFL national tournament the best of luck and we look forward to providing information about this year’s national tournament as it becomes available.
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