Apple Valley senior wins Lincoln Douglas debate -- twice in a row

It's a big deal to win even a single national championship in high school debate. What's 18-year-old Chris Theis' secret? A lot of research and "just being able to think on your feet."

By SARAH LEMAGIE, Star Tribune

Last update: June 9, 2009 - 4:33 PM

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During the weekend Chris Theis spent in Kentucky last month at one of the nation's most important high school debate tournaments, he thinks he got a total of about eight hours of sleep.

The long nights of studying paid off. Theis, who graduates from Apple Valley High School this week, came home from the Tournament of Champions with a national title in Lincoln Douglas debate.

But the really amazing thing is that he's done it twice: He's the only student to win back-to-back championships in that event since it became part of the tournament in 1986.

The keys to success? "There's a lot of research that goes into it, and beyond that, it's just being able to think on your feet," said Theis, 18, who is entering the University of Minnesota this fall and hopes to go on to law school.

Lincoln Douglas debate pits two students against each other in a convoluted skirmish of jabs and rebuttals that lasts about 45 minutes. Debaters tackle a new topic every couple of months, and Theis has argued about everything from health care to nuclear weapons since he joined Apple Valley's powerhouse team as a freshman.

"He is able to handle pretty much whatever is thrown at him," said Pam Wycoff, the school's speech and debate director.

Late-night brainstorming

The topic in Kentucky wasn't new to Theis or his opponents: "Should the United States belong to an international court that prosecutes crimes against humanity?" But elite debaters have to stay on their toes, constantly coming up with new arguments to surprise their opponents.

So Theis stayed up late into the night in his hotel room, drinking soda and brainstorming with his coaches, who spent part of the day scouting out what other students said in preliminary rounds.

Theis has never won a state title, and the Tournament of Champions is just one of three competitions that Wycoff counts among the most important for high school debaters. (He's heading to one of those this weekend.) But he thinks he's done well at the Tournament of Champions partly because judges there tend to value content more than oratorical style, which plays to his strengths.

And the vast amount of reading Theis has done to prepare for debates -- on history, politics, current events -- has given him stronger opinions and a critical eye even when he's just reading the news.

"It makes it a lot easier to see through the BS," he said.

Sarah Lemagie • 952-882-9016