The Natural Debater

It all started in ninth grade for Rockville Centre resident Kevin Cirronella. His older brother, Steven, was involved in Kellenberg High School's debate team, and at first glance, Kevin thought it looked interesting.

Nearly five years later, Cirronella is ranked among the top 40 debaters in the country and is heading off to Wake Forest University to compete for the No. 1 debate team in the country.

"When I first started, I had no expectation whatsoever," Cirronella said. "I thought it would be fun. Then, I started winning and it felt really good."

In June, Cirronella represented the New York City district in a tournament held by the National Forensic League — a national debate organization — and finished in the top 30 out of 580 debaters. He ended the national tournament with seven wins and five losses, which wasn't enough to make it to the finals, but he said it still felt good making it that far.

Cirronella is used to winning, but sometimes that isn't always a good thing. "Sometimes it makes it a little harder when everyone expects you to win," he explained.

Though Cirronella has been involved in hundreds of debates, he said he still gets the same jitters before it's showtime. "The feeling I get before a round is nervousness," he said. "I go through a panic mode. But once I'm in it, it's a competition that I strive to win and the nervousness goes away."

Since he was 13, Cirronella has been a natural debater. In ninth grade, he entered a local debating circuit and went undefeated for the entire year. The following year, he entered a national debate circuit, which involved competitions at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Wake Forest.

Though he was only a sophomore at Kellenberg, Cirronella finished in the top 8 in a national Harvard competition. At that point, Cirronella said he knew this was his calling. "I went passed my expectations at that point," he said.

At Wake Forest, Cirronella will compete in policy debates, a research intense category where debaters study one topic for an entire year. It's much more intense than competing in the National Forensic League tourneys, he said.

"I already started planning," he said about his first policy debate, which focuses on whether the federal government should reduce its restrictions on visa eligibility for immigrants.

Cirronella left for Wake Forest yesterday.