Field,+Zac

Zac Field Coach, Coon Rapids High School, MN

I’ve been involved with Lincoln-Douglas debate for 8 years, debating for half that time and coaching the latter half, both at Coon Rapids High School. Spending time in Minnesota, be aware that I am accustomed to evaluating rounds through a standard of some kind. This doesn’t mean that I am opposed to a priori, theoretical, or critical argumentation, I just don’t have a lot of exposure to those kinds of debates. If you run these kinds of arguments, it would be beneficial to spend some time explaining how they interact within the round. I do make an effort to be impartial, but I need to understand why I would vote for a particular reason before it enters my decision calculus.

Ideally, the perfect round in front of me would involve deep argumentation, as opposed to broad argumentation. Powering through evidence simply to exacerbate a time advantage is not strategic in front of me. I am much more likely to vote on clearly defined, strong argumentation rather than an unwarranted blip that is blown up in the second rebuttal because it was dropped. Substantive debate is always better debate.

I am open to questions both before and after the round, so please feel free to ask.