The Georgetown policy debate team’s ninth-place national ranking marks a return to heights last seen in the late 1970s, with much of the program’s success owed to Richard Day (SFS ’14) and Andrew Markoff (SFS ’14) – the only two-person, all-freshman team to be ranked within the top-25 teams in the country.

“This is the highest Georgetown has been in over a decade. . It’s really kind of a resurgence for the team,” Debate Director Jonathan Paul said.

With over 350 two-person debate teams across the country, any chance of coming out of competition ahead requires hours upon hours of research and preparation. Taking stock of the level of competition his program has reached, Paul estimated the team typically spends 30 to 40 hours a week on debate – and that does not include the amount of class time they miss to go to tournaments.

“I recruit these people in high school,” Paul said. “When they get in and decide to come, they are very much committed to debate.”

And some students applied to Georgetown with debate on their minds.

“I wanted to debate in college and I only was applying to schools that had good debate programs,” Day said.

Georgetown’s debate program, storied for its domination from 1973 to 1980 when Georgetown captured the national Copeland Award five times – equivalent to a No. 1 national ranking – and reached second and third national rankings in the time period as well. According to Tom Rollins (COL ’78), an active alumnus in the program who was voted the best debater of the 1970s, Debate Coach Jim Unger was the driving force behind the decorated team Georgetown had at the time. On his end, Unger was voted best debate coach for that decade.

After Unger left Georgetown, the program fell into disarray, according to Rollins. A lack of funding led to a decline in talent that only started to bounce back three years ago.

Following Unger’s death in April 2008, Rollins and Loren Danzis, a fellow debate student of Unger, executed his estate, for the pair had been tending to their mentor in his later years. In his will, Unger left a set amount of money for the advancement of debate teams nationally, so Rollins and Danzis set up the James J. Unger Memorial Fund for Georgetown Debate with all of the funds.

Rollins and several other alumni donated to the fund, which enabled Georgetown to hire current Director Jonathan Paul. Paul, an alumnus of Northwestern University, debate giant of the 1990s and 2000s, was quite the catch, Rollins said.

“No program does well without a world-class coach. We were so lucky to find [Paul]. . We got this guy and he had come from this fabulous program,” Rollins said.

Rollins also described the close bond that he formed with Unger and the hopes he had for his current team.

“A debate coach shapes you like no one else in your life besides your parents. He will make a fabulous mark on the lives of his debaters as Jim Unger did for me,” Rollins said.

Paul came in with lofty goals for revitalizing the program at Georgetown. Back when he first began speaking with Rollins about the program’s future, he told Rollins about a standout recruiting prospect: Andrew Markoff, a promising high school sophomore from the Bronx High School of Science.

By the end of his high school career, Markoff was ranked the No. 3 debater in the country; Day, his current teammate, was ranked first. Though the two competitors were arch rivals in their high school years, they managed to form a close friendship as contenders at competitions nationwide.

When it came to make their pick for their academic and debate futures, they both said they wanted to play a role in revitalizing a college debate program.

“The team here was kind of dead. . It seemed like a fun opportunity to start on a young team,” Markoff said.

The debate team has suffered some turnover from members studying abroad or graduating. With four freshmen and two sophomores on board, the program is young.

“It was a struggle for the first couple years, and it’s nice to see it all happening,” Paul said.

After the first few years of hard work, Rollins said he sees the program regaining its once-faded prestige.

“[Day and Markoff are] dream-team material. . The only people that beat them are the top teams in the country,” he said.

There are currently six active members on the debate team; participants partner up to compete in teams of two. Each year across the country, debate season begins in July when topics are released. Topics typically focus on government policy, and this year’s topic focuses on whether the U.S. government should alter its immigration policy to increase legal immigration.

“We’ve got an interesting topic, and I’ve liked who I’m working with and what I’m working on,” Day said.

The work begins before school starts. This year the team arrived Aug. 2 to kick off research on their topics. Working from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. in the highly coveted final days of summer was the ultimate bonding experience, according to Markoff.

Rollins said of the extensive time commitment, “There are only a certain amount of hours you can train for a sport, but there is no limit to the amount of work you can do for debate.”

Both Day and Markoff stressed the importance of the team atmosphere and value for their coaching staff.

“We all just really enjoy what we do. … It’s a really good atmosphere. … Georgetown debate has been great because we all try really hard and have each other’s backs,” Markoff said.

Markoff recalled the team’s latest tournament at Harvard University, which is considered the most difficult regular season faceoff and only invites the nation’s best 76 teams. Before the elimination rounds, the entire rest of the team stayed up all night to finish researching. They did this so that Day and Markoff could get the sleep they needed before the competition the next morning. Day and Markoff advanced to the octo-finals, or Sweet 16, after earning a 6-2 record in the preliminary debate rounds.

“The only way you succeed is with the support of your teammates and coaching staff,” Day said.

At that tournament, Day and Markoff took down teams from Harvard, Emory University and the No. 3 ranked team from the University of California, Berkeley. And the duo of boy wonders was the first team of two freshmen to advance to the elimination rounds at the tournament since 1992.

“It’s really cool to be competitive on the national debate circuit . but it’s pretty awesome to be bringing this legacy back to Georgetown,” Day said.

This year’s team has a chance to make it to the National Debate Tournament, which only invites about 70 teams. Rollins and Paul were both optimistic about the team’s chances.

“If these two men [Day and Markoff] stay with it for the rest of their college eligibility, they could be the greatest Georgetown debate team of all time. This kind of success for freshmen is off the charts. . If they stick with it they could be talked about for decades,” Rollins said.

**Correction: Loren Danzis was originally identified as Loren Dangis.**”