TOWSON UNIVERSITY — At the fourth annual Towson University joint tournament, more than 400 competitors from across the state came together for intense competition. This tournament was a cooperative effort, with administrators from both the BUDL and the Baltimore Catholic Forensic League working together. Being close to the holiday break, many debate alumni who attend college across the country were able to come and help judge and coach.

The day was not without its snags: a morning crash on the beltway held judges and teams in traffic for hours, forcing the day to start late. With so many rounds of competition, students became familiar with Towson's large campus. These challenges did not prevent a rousing close. After lunch, students shared some great spoken word skills at the poetry slam, and the awards assembly had raucous cheers for all.

There were some dramatic twists in the results. Southside, a school with a brand new team and coach, came home with fourth place team. A number of other emerging teams really blossomed: Southwestern, Freedom, Digital Harbor, Poly, and Frederick Douglass all came home with impressive results. For some of these teams, it was their first opportunity to compete outside of BUDL, and to be so successful right out of the gates speaks to the strength of both the students and the coaches.

The real story of the day, though, was the small school of Forest Park, which registered a whopping 30 students for the tournament. They didn't just bring bodies, but highly motivated and skilled debaters: their top varsity team (Dayvon Love and Chris Randall) came home with second place and the Forest Park squad rocketed to the top with 22 wins--the most at the tournament--earning them the coveted top school award for the first time in several years. This follows on the heels of their victory the previous weekend at the BUDL novice national qualifier tournament, where the team of Philip Stanley and Charles Johnson bested more than 20 other schools' top novices for a trip to represent BUDL in Atlanta for nationals.

For pictures from the joint tournament, please (click here)