Staff Bios

Steven Adler

Editor-in-Chief/ Mercer Island'11/ Brown University BA '15

Steven debated for four years at Mercer Island High School. As a senior, Steven set a season record for TOC bids (13), including championships at Berkeley, Stanford, the Harvard-Westlake School, Federal Way, and Whitman College. After the season's end, he began heavily promoting his private video hub, which later became NSD Videos. Steven was formerly the Assistant Coach at Lexington (MA), where his student won the TOC. He is now a private coach for various individual debaters.

Ari Parker

Editor-in-Chief / University of Illinois BA

Ari directs the Walt Whitman Speech & Debate Team, one of the largest programs in the country. This year, his students championed Blake, Big Bronx, Greenhill, MBA and co-championed the Valley Mid-America Cup. In addition, his students took second at Emory and Apple Valley. He previously coached and debated, aeons ago, at Glenbrook North.

Ari graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. When he's not coaching debate, he helps run a major D.C.-area test prep company.

Ben Koh

Editor-in-Chief; Video Hub Coordinator / Loyola HS '13/ New York University BA'17

Ben Koh debated for Loyola High School in California for 4 years, serving as Captain his senior year. He has made it to outrounds of numerous tournaments including Wake Forest, Presentation, St. Mark's, CPS, VBT, Stanford, and Berkeley. He played a central role in restructuring the Loyola novice program his junior year, and maintains the bid list. In his junior year, he went undefeated at a Western Bay Forensics League tournament and qualified to NFL Nationals in Policy debate, missing breaking by a ballot at his 2nd policy tournament. He competed at the TOC in LD his senior year and will be attending New York University in the fall, intending to study Communications.

Brennan Caruthers

Contributor/ La Costa Canyon' '13/ Northeastern '17

Brennan debated for two and half years in San Diego, competing primarily as an independent.  In his senior year, he broke at every bid-distributing tournament he attended, but more importantly, he was top seed at the gruesome bloodbath of a tournament that is also sometimes referred to as the Jack Howe Long Beach Invitational.  Brennan earned speaker awards at Meadows, UT, CPS, VBT, Lexington, Stanford, Berkeley, NDCA, and of course, the Jack Howe Invitational.  He placed in the top four debaters in the Lexington, California, and Kandi King round robins.  He ended his career in the bubble round of the ToC. He now studies Marketing at Northeastern University and is having a grand ole’ time.