‘Just like football’: University of Michigan debaters win 1st national title

ANN ARBOR, MI - More national championship hardware has come to Ann Arbor. Wolverine fans are still celebrating football’s win in January while hoping for one in hockey this weekend.

However, it’s the Ann Arbor university’s debate team that just brought home the most recent title.

Debaters Kelly Phil and Bennett Dombcik won the 2024 National Debate Tournament at Emory University in Atlanta on April 8, sweeping the University of Kansas in a 5-0 decision in the final round.

This is the team’s first-ever national title after seven runner-up finishes, including the last three years. Phil, a senior from Seoul, South Korea studying political science, was on last year’s team and was amazed to get another chance to win.

“It was surreal to win it this year after getting so close last year,” she said.

Phil started her debate career in middle school, as her mom told her she was outspoken and needed an outlet.

“Debate then became the center of my academic universe for the last 10 years,” she said.

Dombcik, a senior from Chapel Hill, North Carolina studying philosophy, started debate in high school, as his friends all debated. While he felt pulled into debating at first, he grew to love and dedicate himself to the activity.

“We’ve spent about six to 10 hours a day on debate,” Dombcik said about his training at University of Michigan.

The team was founded in 1903, said Aaron Kall, the university’s director of debate. Debaters like Phil and Dombcik have received at least partial scholarships funded by alumni of the team since 2011, Kall said.

Kall, the team’s coach since the early 2000s, guided the team to its runner-up finishes in 2014, 2015, 2021, 2022 and 2023. With this year’s title, University of Michigan became the first school to have its football and debate teams win it all in the same year since the national debate tournament began in 1947, Kall said.

Becoming better debaters is just like any sport, Phil said, as its about repetition to finetune skills such as researching and speaking clearly.

“It’s about accruing a lot of experience over time,” she said. “It’s more a marathon than a sprint.”

Debate tournaments involve two teams taking sides on a particular issue, with one team affirming an issue while the other team negates it. Both sides present their arguments to judges, who then decide who wins based on the quality of the arguments and the persuasiveness of the debaters.

To win in the final round, Phil and Dombcik debated U.S. nuclear policy and the issue over a “no first use policy,” or the position that countries with nuclear weapons will not be the first to use one. Phil and Dombcik argued from the side of a “sole purpose policy,” or one that advocates for specific circumstances to use the weapon.

“We prepped and deployed our arguments effectively,” Phil said, with no pun intended.

The final round expects to be the last time Phil and Dombcik ever participate on a debate team, Dombcik said.

“That fueled us,” he said, adding that the reality gave them the adrenaline necessary to properly prepare their arguments.

“We also consumed a level of caffeine we normally aren’t accustomed to,” Phil said.

Now with a title in hand, Phil and Dombcik want to take their talents to law school, or in Dombcik’s case a possible doctorate in philosophy.

One area where their debate skills are not helpful is at the dinner table with family, Phil said with a laugh.

“Parents always seem to have the trump card,” she said. “I’m far better at debating nuclear policy.”

Winning a national title the same year the football team won its first since 1997 made both feel proud to be Wolverines.

“I remember watching the (College Football Playoff Final) at a debate tournament in January,” Dombcik said. “Its a memory I will never forget.”

“It feels amazing to be a part of a winning culture,” Phil said.

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