Jake Nebel is Co-Executive Director of Victory Briefs and a PhD candidate in Philosophy at New York University, the #1 ranked philosophy department in the world. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University before attaining a BPhil from the University of Oxford, where where he studied as a Marshall Scholar.You can view his academic website here.
As a debater for Trinity Prep (FL), Jake debated in finals of Greenhill (twice), the Glenbrooks (twice), Harvard (three times), the New York City Invitational (twice), the Barkley Forum at Emory, Yale, the Bronx Round Robin, the MBA Round Robin, the VBT Round Robin, the Vassar Round Robin, the FFL State Championship, and NSDA Nationals—winning most of those. He was Top Speaker at the Tournament of Champions, Greenhill, Harvard, the New York City Invitational (twice), the Bronx Round Robin (twice), Yale (twice), the Vassar Round Robin, the Crestian Classic, and the FFL State Championship. As a coach for the Greenhill School (TX), Jake's students have won the Tournament of Champions, the NDCA National Championship, the Dukes & Bailey Cup, the Glenbrooks, the Harvard Round Robin, the New York City Invitational, Emory (twice), the TFA State Tournament, and other national, regional, and local championships.
Chris is Co-Executive Director of Victory Briefs. Chris has been teaching at VBI since 2009. He currently coaches for his alma mater, Apple Valley (MN), and Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (CA). As a coach his students have reached elimination rounds at the Tournament of Champions each of the past five seasons, including two semi-finalists, and have placed in the top 12 of the NSDA National Tournament. His students have won nearly every major invitational tournament (some multiple times) including: Harvard, Greenhill, Stanford, The Minneapple, Emory, CPS, Lexington, Loyola, Damus, The Greenhill Round Robin, and others.
As a competitor he was one of only two juniors to ever win the Tournament of Champions and is the only person to win it twice. He was the champion of Blake, Emory, the Iowa Round Robin twice, the Greenhill Round Robin twice, and St. Marks twice. Chris was also a semi finalist at Greenhill and the Glenbrooks, a finalist at Berkley, and a four year qualifier to the NSDA national tournament.
Christian has been coaching debate since 2005. His students have won Greenhill, Valley, Apple Valley, Blake, Harvard-Westlake, Stanford, and the TOC, and reached the final round at NSDA Nationals. He is currently an assistant coach for West Des Moines Valley HS in Iowa and a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Maryland.
Scott Wheeler is head coach of LD and policy debate at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. He's a graduate of Northwestern University's School of Communication and a master's candidate at the School of Communication at Seaver College at Pepperdine University.
In the past two years, Wheeler's LD students have won the Greenhill round robin, Emory, Stanford, Lexington, Loyola (twice), the Damus Invitational (twice), the College Prep School tournament, the Battle for Los Angeles (USC), the Berkeley/CPS round robin, and St. Marks, and have reached finals in USC, Stanford, and Harvard-Westlake and semis at the NDCA, the Glenbrooks, and Greenhill (twice). Wheeler's policy students have won the St. Marks Sophomore Hoe Down and reached finals at La Costa Canyon and Lexington and semis at CSU-Long Beach. His students have won LD top speaker awards at Stanford, Loyola, Damus (twice), CPS, Emory, Berkeley, the Berkeley/CPS round robin, and St. Marks policy top speaker awards at the Hoe-Down and at Damus. Prior to Peninsula, he coached Kudos, an after school program in the San Gabriel Valley, to championships in policy debate and public forum debate at the NSDA middle school national tournament and to multiple school of excellence awards.
Akhil debated for Westwood High School in Texas. During his career he earned11 bids to the ToC and qualified 3 times. He won St. Marks, Grapevine, UT (twice), and, the University of Houston tournaments. Additionally he reached the final round of Churchill, Grapevine and the Greenhill Round Robin. Akhil also qualified to TFA state four times.
Andrew Bower debated for four years at Miramonte High School (CA). He was its first national circuit Lincoln Douglas debater and its first student to qualify to the Tournament of Champions. Throughout his career, Andrew earned bids at Meadows, Alta, College Prep, and Berkeley and competed at the TOC twice. He also placed among the top ten speakers at Voices, Meadows, Alta, Stanford, and Berkeley.
Carlos Taylor debated for Evanston Township High School In both LD and Policy. Despite only ever doing LD full time his senior year, Carlos still managed to clear at every regular season tournament he attended and bidding at all but 1 of them. Carlos was the Champion and Top speaker of the Mid America Cup and top speaker of Blake. Reaching out rounds of The Glenbrooks, Valley, Apple Valley, Blake, and Harvard as well as getting a career total of over 5 Round Robins invitations (all in his senior year).
Chloe debated for the Hockaday School in Texas for four years. Her junior year, She cleared at most national tournaments she attended and, after receiving a bid at the Harvard Tournament, at-larged to the Tournament of Champions. That year, she also reached quarterfinals of the Texas State tournament. This year, she was champion of Grapevine, Semifinalist of Valley, Octofinalist at St. Marks and currently has 4 bids to the Tournament of Champions. She has also participated in the Vassar, Hockaday, Greenhill and Valley round robins throughout her debate career.
Christian debated in LD and Policy for Newark Science (NJ) for four years. In LD, he qualified to the TOC his junior and senior year (was top speaker his senior year), won the Ridge tournament, was the co-champion of Scarsdale and Berkeley, and made it to late elimination rounds at Glenbrooks, Lexington, Emory, Harvard, NDCA, and TOC. In Policy, he broke at Scranton and Lakeland his junior and senior year. Christian plans on continuing his debate career on the College Policy team at Rutgers-Newark.
Danny DeBois (Harvard '18) debated for Harrison High School in New York for 4 years. He won the TOC, NCFL Grand Nationals, the Minneapple, the Glenbrooks, the Harvard Round Robin, and the Harvard Invitational (twice). He was in finals of Greenhill (twice), the Greenhill Round Robin, Bronx, the Bronx Round Robin, and Lexington (twice.) He is now an assistant coach at Harvard-Westlake in California. He attended VBI twice as a student and worked there last year as an instructor.
Ed debated for four years at The Meadows School in Las Vegas, NV, graduating in 2013. Twice attending the TOC, he reached octofinals his senior year, as well as found success in elimination rounds at Apple Valley and Glenbrooks. He currently coaches for Apple Valley High School and attends Carleton College in Northfield, MN.
Eric is the assistant debate coach at Katy-Taylor High School, where he debated for three years in both policy debate and LD. During his time as a coach, his students have received 5 TOC bids in LD and 6 TOC bids in policy debate, winning both the 2015 College Prep Round Robin and the 2015 California Invitational. He is also an award winning debate coach, receiving the Michael Bacon Coaching Award from Lexington HS in 2012. Eric currently competes in NDT-CEDA policy debate for the University of Houston, finishing this year as the 5th seed and 11th speaker at "Fear and Loathing in Dallas" and reaching elims at multiple tournaments.
Haziq is a sophomore at the Johns Hopkins University. He debated for Lynbrook High School and La Jolla High School for four years. As a junior, Haziq was quarterfinalist at the NDCA National Championships. He was also a semifinalist at the Stanford Invitational and quarterfinalist at the Voices and Golden Desert Invitationals. He received bids to the TOC at the Victory Briefs, Stanford, and St. Mark's tournaments.
Jacob was a 4 year Lincoln Douglas debater at Starr's Mill high school in Georgia. As a senior, he won the Georgia state tournament, cleared at NFL nationals, and qualified to the TOC. He is currently a third year policy debater at Georgia State University, where he cleared at ADA Nationals and qualified to the NDT. In his first two years coaching LD, he coached TOC quarterfinals and octofinals appearances. This year, his debaters have appeared in semifinals of Greenhill, Bronx, and Apple Valley; finals of the Valley round robin, Bronx round robin, and Apple Valley round robin; and championships at Wake Forest and the Harvard round robin, amassing 9 TOC bids.
Joey debated for three years at Evanston Township High School in Congressional and Lincoln-Douglas debate. He qualified to the Tournament of Champions his junior year in congress, and qualified in LD his senior year with bids at Valley and Blake. He was also in the bid round of St. Marks and Dowling Catholic. He has also had success in traditional LD; last year he won the IHSA state tournament, was a quarter finalist at the NCFL National Tournament, and cleared at the NSDA National Tournament with an 11-1 record in prelims.
Neel debated for four years at Taylor High School. As a debater he earned 5 TOC bids qualifying his junior and senior year. As a junior, in addition to clearing at most of the tournaments he attended, he reached quarterfinals of the Apple Valley and Emory tournament and finished 2nd at the TFA state tournament. As a senior, despite having to deal with the nightmare that is college apps, he reached quarterfinals of the Greenhill tournament and finished his qualification at St. Marks. He was invited to compete in both the Greenhill and Kandi King Round Robins. Neel also competed on the local circuit qualifying to state all four years and winning numerous local tournaments.
Nick is in his fourth year of coaching at Hopkins in Minnesota where he is currently the director of debate. A number of his students have qualified to the TOC, NSDA Nationals, and Minnesota State Tournament. They have also received invitations to compete in several round robins including Harvard and Voices/Presentation. His students consistently clear at numerous bid tournaments each year including: Harvard, Harvard-Westlake, Minneapple, Valley, Blake, Stanford, Dowling, Caucus, and Westside. This will be Nick’s fourth year working at VBI and he also attended VBI twice as a student.
Nick Tourville debated for eight years, including four years of LD at St. Louis Park High School and four years of college policy at the University of Minnesota. He had the most bids in the country his senior year, and his students have won many major tournaments, including the Tournament of Champions. Nick is now a Ph.D. student in philosophy at Rutgers University.
Rory debated at La Costa Canyon for his junior and senior year. He has coached debaters from Lynbrook (CA) and Arbor View (NV) High Schools. His students have reached elimination rounds at Greenhill, Berkeley, Harvard-Westlake, Presentation, Meadows, and Golden Desert. Rory is currently an honors student in the UC Berkeley Rhetoric Department, and has a fantastic knowledge of continental and analytic philosophy as well as critical literature.
Samantha debated extensively on the national circuit for Stuyvesant High School for four years. She qualified to the TOC her senior year, earning bids from finals of Ridge and quarterfinals of Lexington. In addition, over the course of her career, she reached bid rounds at Columbia and Bronx. Her junior and senior years she reached elimination rounds at 18 of the 21 bid tournaments she attended, including elims at Yale, Bronx, Blake, Sunvite, Lexington, and Harvard. Samantha also received various speaker awards, including 2nd speaker at Blake her senior year, 2nd speaker at Scarsdale and Newark, 4th speaker at Bump, and placed in the top 10 speakers at Yale, Princeton, Ridge, Columbia, and Beltway. She also received invites to numerous round robins, including ones at Lexington, Newark, Beltway, Penn, Hockaday, and Harrison. Samantha attends the University of Chicago and is double majoring in philosophy and political science.
Shania Hunt debated for four years at Northland Christian School in Texas and was a team captain for her junior and senior year. She competed in both speech and debate events with an emphasis on Lincoln-Douglas Debate. She is a two time qualifier to the TOC, three time qualifier to NSDA Nationals, and four time qualifier to TFA state. She was the 3rd seed and a quarterfinalist at 2014 TOC, national runner up in Extemporaneous Debate at 2013 NSDA nationals, 2nd at the 2014 Cal Berkeley Tournament, and champion of the 2013 Greenhill Classic and Cal Berkeley Round Robin. Outside of LD, she was one of nine people on the Team USA Worlds Schools Debate Team and was selected as one of five to attend the 2014 World Championships.
Tinuola debated five years for Eastside Catholic High School in Sammamish, Washington. She was the first LD debater to attend TOC from her school. Her junior year, she was in the bid rounds at Federal Way and Harvard and reached elimination rounds at Yale, Whitman, Blake and Stanford. She also placed 16th at the NSDA National Tournament and 3rd at the WIAA State tournament. Her senior year she earned 4 bids to the TOC, notably reaching quarterfinals of St. Mark's, finals of UPS and winning Federal Way. She also received speaker awards at Whitman, Blake and Harvard. Tinuola also competed at the Apple Valley and Harvard Round Robins. She will be attending Stanford University in the fall. (picture attached)
Jake Nebel is Co-Executive Director of Victory Briefs and a PhD candidate in Philosophy at New York University, the #1 ranked philosophy department in the world. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University before attaining a BPhil from the University of Oxford, where where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. You can view his academic website here.
As a debater for Trinity Prep (FL), Jake debated in finals of Greenhill (twice), the Glenbrooks (twice), Harvard (three times), the New York City Invitational (twice), the Barkley Forum at Emory, Yale, the Bronx Round Robin, the MBA Round Robin, the VBT Round Robin, the Vassar Round Robin, the FFL State Championship, and NSDA Nationals—winning most of those. He was Top Speaker at the Tournament of Champions, Greenhill, Harvard, the New York City Invitational (twice), the Bronx Round Robin (twice), Yale (twice), the Vassar Round Robin, the Crestian Classic, and the FFL State Championship. As a coach for the Greenhill School (TX), Jake's students have won the Tournament of Champions, the NDCA National Championship, the Dukes & Bailey Cup, the Glenbrooks, the Harvard Round Robin, the New York City Invitational, Emory (twice), the TFA State Tournament, and other national, regional, and local championships.
This will be his eleventh summer at VBI.