Top debater covers the spread

Brady Daniller can speed read -- or spread, as it is called in debate jargon -- with the best of them.

The Wilde Lake High School sophomore said he capitalizes on his ability to talk fast to cram all of his ideas into six minutes of allotted speaking time.

But one of the judges at Saturday's debate competition at Loyola Blakefield in Towson said there is often an accompanying strategy behind that technique.

"Spreading allows you to run your arguments rapidly past your opponent, so he or she has a difficult time absorbing them all," said Teresa Needer, a math teacher at Towson High.

"It's pretty common," she said. "But not everyone can get the message across as well as he did when they are reading that fast."

Needer, who awarded the 15-year-old the victory, is not the first judge to make that observation.

Daniller is the top-ranked debater in the Baltimore Catholic Forensic League, which encompasses 40 private and public high schools from counties around the metropolitan area. He won all nine rounds of his first three contests of the season to quickly capture that honor.

At tomorrow's speech and debate state finals at Calvert Hall College High School in Towson, he will compete for a spot at the national championship in May in Wisconsin.

"This is our version of March Madness," joked Daniller, comparing the debate meets to this month's collegiate basketball tournament. "We're figuring out who will be in the nationals."

Kelli Midgely-Biggs, an English and speech teacher whom the kids call "Ms. M-B," is coaching Wilde Lake. The top six from a field of 16 who have qualified in one-on-one debate will move to the highest level, and she has high hopes that Daniller will be one of them.

"He is a very nice young man, yet he drops that demeanor when he's debating," she said. "He is ruthlessly logical, and he goes on the attack. He has done very well with this strategy."

She said she knew to expect great things from her young protege after teaching his older siblings, Andrew and Jamie Daniller, about a decade ago. The three are the children of Gene and Sheri Daniller of Clary's Forest.

But the youngest Daniller didn't get off on the right foot in his second year with the team, losing five consecutive rounds in a preseason regional tournament in September.

"I had no clue what I was doing, and it was pretty scary," he said. "But after that, I picked it right up."

Not everyone can use defeat as a springboard, but Daniller did just that.

"I guarantee you he never makes the same mistake twice," said Midgely-Biggs. "Brady uses what he learns to outsmart his opponents. He may have gotten killed, but he learned a lot from that experience."

"I have discovered that I am pretty good at thinking on my feet," said Daniller of his first-place position. "My friends are proud of me for what I've done, but debaters are mostly nerds and geeks so I fit right in."

There was nothing "geeky" about Daniller's delivery last Saturday as he launched into his first constructive case of the day. He read his well-researched thoughts at auctioneer-style speed, yet he never stumbled. Judge Joe DeNardi, a Towson attorney, said the teenager was poised and made good eye contact.

"I get really nervous right before it's my turn," Daniller said. "But once I start, I feel calm. My favorite part is winning."

He said that many private and Catholic schools have lengthy traditions of debate while public schools do not, adding, "We're sort of outcasts out here in Howard County."

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