Freshman Ben Stalnaker made Upper St. Clair history by being the first Upper St. Clair freshman to qualify to the National Forensics League (NFL) Nationals Tournament (the most prestigious of the two national tournament).  His achievement will mean that he, along with Upper St. Clair Senior Brent Heard (competing in Extemporaneous Speaking) will compete in the National Tournament in Dallas, Texas in June.

The magnitude of his success is his significant.  Forensics Co-Coach Mr. Watson proclaimed the victory as “the greatest upset in forensics history!”  He uprooted three of the best debaters in Pittsburgh (Griffin Stewart from McDowell High School in Erie and Timmy Makkar and Richard Gayler from North Allegheny High School).  Ben claimed that the final debate deciding the winner of the tournament, against Makkar, was “literally the best debate he ever had.”

Ben Stalnaker’s success is the product of hardwork.  Ben said that he contributed “maybe 15 hours for this topic.”  He quipped that he put far more work into debate than into schoolwork, despite him still maintaining a perfect weighted GPA.  From practice debates with his friend Qinglan Huang (who, as a sophomore this year, also qualified to the CFL Nationals tournament), to reading numerous philosophy books such as The Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant (his favorite philosopher and personal role model).  But Ben’s best friend, freshman Aditya Thakur, said that “he has natural skill.”

Ben joined forensics because many of his friends did it.  Also, he “wanted to find a challenge outside of school and […] wanted to test […] his debating skills”.  In addition, he describes himself as being “very excited” for the National tournament.

Outside of school, Ben is a fun, successful guy.  Freshman Ihsan Nakiboglu described him as “just a nice guy!”  Ben is also a kicker on the freshman football team and a unicycling enthusiast.  Hopefully he will continue his excellence in debate (and elsewhere) in the future.