Transcript: Will Allen on Debate, Baseball, and Leadership

Good morning, and welcome back to Late Start Show. We're here with baseball player, head varsity debate captain, and senior, Will Allen. How are you, Will? I'm doing good, Charlie.

Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. No, it's great to have you on the show. You know, you're a senior who's obviously excelling in academics, speech and debate, baseball.

Tell us how you first got to university school and what your initial impressions were. Yeah, so my journey started kind of late in my eighth grade year. I actually was at Chagrin. I didn't know a whole lot about U.S.

I had some classmates who had come to U.S., was interested, came to a shadow day, and I just kind of fell in love. I was really lucky. I shadowed Hugh Kapitke, who was great, one of the best guys that you could have shadowed for sure. And I fell in love from there on, finished the application process and was really excited to be able to come here.

So, yeah. When you first started at U.S., how did those first days go? I know from my perspective, transitioning from big public school to smaller private school, has some transition period. So, what was that like for you?

Yeah, I think it was kind of hard for me at first, day to day. I think that there were a few things that I did that really helped me. Freshman year, my best friend was in my sponsor group. He actually, I mean, you guys weren't up here yet, but he came in from the U.K., from England, and I hit it off with him right away, actually.

He then left after freshman year, but that was a real big thing that helped me. But I think it was definitely hard. I started doing things that I loved, like playing baseball, though, interacting with upperclassmen a little bit more. I think it made it a lot easier, for sure.

You know, and you transferred to U.S. after attending Chagrin. So, how did kind of that transition go more academically? Yeah. Academically, it was challenging.

Chagrin, I'd never really like, I'd never even done homework at my house. I had kind of been that kid that always had gotten everything done at school, never had to worry about it, never studied. And freshman year was definitely a wake-up call. I think, like, especially one class in particular, Honors Math 3 with Mr.

Strachan, probably the hardest class that I've still, I've ever taken, still ever taken. And very tough transition, learning how to study, learning how to get my homework done, meet with teachers, stuff like that was definitely a challenge. And you're now involved in a lot of clubs and sports. When you first came here, what were some of those clubs and things?

What were some of those activities that you got into? Yeah. So, I think I've sort of branched out a little bit more as the years have gone on, which has been good. I've seen kind of what communities I want to put more time into.

But that first year, I joined Speech and Debate as soon as I could. And baseball were pretty much my two big things. And I think that those are really great because, like I mentioned earlier, upperclassmen in both of those activities were just awesome. Guys were so nice, understanding.

But those are the two main things that I first got started with freshman year. And I think that that was a great place to, you know, make friendships. And then eventually I've joined some other clubs and initiatives and stuff like that. But I think those are the two main, main things I did freshman year.

You know, over the years, who's been your favorite teacher or mentor kind of at U.S.? And why did you really just connect with them so well? Yeah. So, I think my favorite teacher that I've had is no longer here.

Mr. Heath, Mr. George Heath was my micro teacher. Sophomore year.

And I really appreciated something I really appreciate about U.S. is all the teachers are like scholars in their fields. And Mr. Heath was a guy who had no teaching background, but a wealth of knowledge in business. And for microeconomics, which is basically just a business class, every every lesson he would at least he would give at least one anecdote, one story, something funny.

And I think he really helped me a lot, too, because sophomore year was also different. It was a difficult year, I think, still getting used to U.S. And he'd be, you know, open to giving me extensions, open to talking through projects, stuff like that. So I think Mr.

Heath was a real instrumental figure in sort of my academic growth, but also a great, a great guy to see every day. Great teacher to have every day. So, yeah, you know, you're also a National Merit semifinalist, which is super impressive. Congrats.

What study habits or kind of strategies really got you through? Obviously, you talked about transition. That was pretty hard. But like what really kind of got you through that period?

Yeah. So honestly, I did not do much studying before the PSAT. I'd been lucky where at Chagrin through middle school, I had been forced to take at public school. You have to take a lot more standardized tests.

So I think my understanding of standardized tests was pretty good, which very much helped me. I'd taken the PSAT in eighth, ninth, 10th grade, but I think I had at that point I had taken some practice SATs, trying to get prepared for the SAT more so than the PSAT. So I think that those probably helped me. But other than that, I think it was just the background knowledge on standardized testing that was very helpful for me throughout that process.

And a lot of people place a lot of pressure and importance on those standardized tests. What do you think is the importance of kind of broadening a skill set and not just focusing on testing, but being able to like have social skills and emotional IQ? Yeah. I think I think that that's that is the most important thing and something that I've really loved about U.S. is like being in a lot of different types of communities like, you know, baseball debate, being in, you know, very difficult classes, even playing an instrument in the orchestra.

You know, as a senior, I had to do I've had to do a lot of reflecting for like college applications and stuff, writing about a lot of essays. And that's really a through line, what Jack mentioned, like interacting. And that's really a through line, what Jack mentioned, like interacting. With a lot of different types of people who have a lot of different goals.

And I think one thing at U.S. is everybody has something that they like really love to do and they're really good at doing. And I think that, yeah, sometimes we get a little caught up in, you know, how how intelligent are you? And I think it's more important to how can you interact with others? Because that's actually that's really what matters at the end of the day to me.

So, yeah, I think that's super important. And then balancing like you talk about sports debate, academics, orchestra can be intense. How do you manage that? How do you manage your time between practices, tournaments, homework?

How do you do it? Yeah. Well, if there are any underclassmen listening, I'd say my number one tip is utilize your time during the school day. I've had a study hall, maybe five out of my eight semesters at U.S.

I haven't had it for various reasons. I think sophomore year, junior year. But when I do have a study hall, you just you have to make the most of it. And it's only like this year as well, where second lunch now I'm I'm actually having fun during second.

Lunch the past three years, I've been doing homework, stuff like that. And then I'd say just just make sure that you understand how much work you have when you go home every night, because sometimes all everybody has everybody has tough nights where they're like, you know, they can't get their work done. But I think if you have a good idea of what what you how you need to manage your time each individual night, I think that's super important. Staying on top of things, future assignments, stuff like that is those are probably my biggest.

Takeaways and keys to success. You know, for a lot of people, family is really the largest supporter of everything you do, whether it's obviously when you're a lower class and getting you to different places or when you're an upperclassman, just helping you through some of that college application and just getting you through the day to day. How is kind of your parents or your siblings kind of just really pushed you and helped you out? Yeah.

So so like you mentioned, I didn't I didn't start driving, for example, until like February of my sophomore year. So my parents made a lot of sacrifices to to get me to U.S. in the first place. And I'm super thankful for that. I couldn't I couldn't have done it without them.

And then also, yeah, I mean, they're my biggest supporters and everything. You know, like I've been going through the college writing process. I think one of my essays I rewrote about ten times and I think my mom probably read eight or nine of those versions. Could not be more thankful for like that, that type of support.

And then I think also just trying to spend time with them on the weekends is really important, because if you're if you're spending a lot of time just by yourself, stuff like that, it can get it can get difficult when you have a lot of work to do, a lot of pressure. So like a lot of Sundays, I try and spend a lot of time with my family. I'll shout out my grandma and grandpa, who I'm lucky enough to live five minutes away from. Whenever I have free Saturdays, I go over and watch football for, you know, eight hours on a Saturday.

So I think, yeah, they've been there supporting me every step along the way, but then also making sure that I'm happy, I'm succeeding, stuff like that. So I'm definitely grateful for them. You know, switching to sports, how did you first get into baseball? What position do you usually play and what do you really enjoy about the game?

Yeah. So I started playing baseball when I was, you know, T-ball, like four or five years old. It was something that my mom's side of the family really loved. My grandpa has been a Cleveland Indians.

He's been a Cleveland Indians fan for as long as time. He likes to say he was born 1949, the year after the then Indians won their last World Series. So he's always been a big baseball guy. So I started playing, you know, and I just played with youth organizations like the Sugar and False Tigers baseball organization throughout.

And I think what I really appreciate about baseball, and Jack would talk to this too, is just how much time we spend with one another, I'd say. And the people that are on like the U.S. team or on my summer team. I just, I love, I love like, it's going to sound cliche, but I love going to battle with the guys. And it doesn't matter like what role you play.

It's just so fun to be a part of something that's bigger than you. And that's honestly, baseball is my way of branching out and doing that. I think. And last year was pretty sweet.

We had a historic run going to the state finals for the first time. And like you mentioned, our team culture was pretty special. From your perspective, what made our team and continues to make the baseball program such a strong culture program? Yeah.

So I think it starts with a few things. I think the one thing that's always stood out to me is from freshman year, we've lost in the playoffs and within a month we've been lifting again or, you know, getting, you know, getting guys here. Over the summer to throw with each other, to hit with each other. And when you have, when your best friends are playing baseball with you, it's just going to be so much more fun, so much more enjoyable.

And from my perspective, I mean, as someone who honestly didn't play very much, I can say that like the little things very much matter. I would sit at the end of the dugout with the same guys every game in the same spot. We would, you know, something good would happen. We'd all get back in the same spot in the dugout, same cheers.

Every time an inning ended, everybody gets up, goes out, gives high fives, picks up the guy who did something wrong or congratulates the guy who did something amazing, made a great catch. And I think that that's really where our season started and ended and why we were so successful. I mean, we were never the team with the most firepower, if you will, but we were the team that supported one another. And, yeah, I think that's why we were so successful.

You know, now let's talk about speech and debate. How did you first become interested in speech and debate, and what made you really want to join the team? Yeah, so speech and debate, I think I started in middle school. So I started in seventh grade at Chagrin Schools.

My mom pushed me to join the team, as most speech and debate kids are, their parents pushing them to join. And I really enjoyed this experience through middle school. It's a whole different animal. High school debate versus middle school.

But I was kind of just pushed to join the team because it was something that I really enjoyed. I knew it would look good on a college application, I won't lie. But I think what's made me stick with it more so than anything is just like the pursuit of success and then as well as, you know, loving the people that I do it with, which I think is super important, having a lot of great friends in the activity and stuff like that. And as a head captain of the debate team, which is a very successful debate team here, how do you motivate or help your teammates when preparing for debates?

And what does your role really entail as captain? Yeah, so I think debate is super unique in that, like, practice can look like a lot, like there's, it's not like you're just going to go to practice. Like for baseball, we go to practice and you're going to hit, you're going to field, you're going to pitch, basically. That's not always true.

But for debate, you can go and you can, you know, and you can evaluate so many different weaknesses. If you think your arguments are weak, you can work on your arguments. If you think a certain speech that you're giving, because there's certain set speeches, if you think a certain speech that you're giving is not getting your point across to the judge, you can redo those. And I think it's coming to debate every day with the knowledge of how do I get better today?

What went well? Because we have tournaments every weekend. What went well last weekend? What do I think is going to be hard this weekend?

So I think my role is trying to help every individual person find their biggest weakness from the last weekend, the last tournament, their arguments, something like that, and help them work on that. And yeah, I think that's the best path forward for them. What's been kind of a defining moment throughout your speech and debate career so far, maybe kind of around you're proud of or tournament you're proud of? Obviously this year you're starting really, really successfully.

So whether or not it's throughout your career, or throughout your entire speech and debate career just this year, what's something you can really remember? Yeah, so I didn't put as much effort into debate as I probably should have my freshman and sophomore years. I got a little bit bogged down in that debate is unique because as a freshman, you're competing against seniors immediately. It's not like there's a varsity and a JV bracket.

So then junior year was kind of a turning point where I had to decide if I wanted to put my energy into it. And the first few tournaments of the year, my partner and I would go two and two. We'd win two debates, lose two debates almost every time. And then last year we ended up qualifying for the state tournament.

And in order to reach the playoffs, if you will, the tournament of the state tournament, you need to have a four and two record in six rounds. And my partner and I unknowingly had won all four of our first rounds. So we had basically qualified for the playoffs of the tournament, if you will. As fast as you could, which was really cool.

And when we learned that, we were super excited, especially as a team that hadn't seen much success earlier in the year. And now we've just built on that. And I think, yeah, that was probably my most proud moment was just the growth over my junior year. Super exciting.

And it was all time and effort, which is the bottom line. And like you said, a lot of people when they think of speech and debate, it's like, oh, well, all those kids, their parents told them to do it. But what would you tell a kid who, you know, to get them excited about doing speech and debate and to join themselves? Yeah.

So I think speech and debate is, it's a super unique activity. And a lot of people who don't do it can't quite feel why it's so unique until they do it. Like, so for example, there are like 30 teams roughly and across like maybe six or eight schools in the Cleveland area, 30 debate teams, so 30 partnerships. So the event I do is public forum debate.

It's two on two. So every weekend we go and we see the same teams who are arguing, you know, roughly the same things every weekend. But we spend 10 hours a day at a tournament. So like this weekend, we're going to Hawken, for example.

And the best part is we debate four times for 45 minutes. You can do the math. A lot of that time, the rest of that time is spent with your friends, with your guys. And when you do that, it's a lot of fun.

When you're like me and, you know, your partner for debate is one of your best friends, it's so fun to just go and sit there and just talk. And this weekend we'll probably, you know, at Hawken, the Hawken tournament usually, like we end up playing spike ball or there's a football or something. And you're seeing the same people from other schools every week interacting with them, becoming friends with them. And I think that's why debate has really become special to me is just the relationships.

It's so much time spent with other people and you really do grow close to them. And I think the upperclassmen that I've done it with the past few years are honestly the closest relationships I've had with kids in the grade ahead of me. I think that's important. You know, another thing that you're involved with is the Student Investment Committee.

What is your role? Kind of been on the team throughout the years. And now that you're a senior and you're the treasurer, what is the opportunity really given to you? Yeah, so I actually did not start on the Student Investment Committee in 10th grade like most people do.

There was an opening and I applied for it. So I only started last year as a junior. But I think Student Investment Committee is probably the most underrated opportunity that we have at U.S. For those of you who don't know, the Student Investment Committee is currently overseeing upwards of $540,000 in investments right now that started back in 2010, I believe.

So it started with $500,000. With U.S. basically giving us $10,000 a year, we no longer need the $10,000 a year because we're making $70,000 to $80,000 a year in net profit, which is pretty crazy. So now I think it's just about, I think for the leadership for the seniors this year, it's been about what does that look like in the future? Because once that number reaches like a million dollars, we have a lot of power.

As an investment committee. And I think it's a super cool opportunity. I've loved pitching stocks. I've loved talking about stocks.

I've loved spending time with, you know, the eight other sophomores, juniors, and seniors. And I think, yeah, I think it's been a super cool underrated opportunity. And I'm excited to see what it brings in the future, really. Because at some point, we'd love to give the money back.

We'd love to find a way to do something unique with it because it is an impactful amount of money. But yeah, super cool and unique opportunity for sure. And looking back across all of these platforms that you've been able to lead and have really cool accomplishments, what are you most proud of, whether that's in academics, sports, debate, or anything else? Yeah, I think what I've been most proud of is my ability to connect with a lot of different types of people who have a lot of different motivations.

I think for all four of my years, I've been the only kid on baseball and speech and debate, for example. You know, both programs are about 40 to 50 kids. The only person on both. And I think the type of kid who wants to, you know, compete at the varsity level on a state championship caliber team in baseball is often very different from the kid who wants to compete on one of the best debate teams in Ohio.

Or, you know, the kid who wants to focus on business initiatives and student investment is probably different from the kid who wants to play cello in the orchestra. So I think as I've grown, I've grown to really appreciate that everyone around me is doing something that they love. And I want to try and understand, you know, what really pushes them to get up in the morning and why do they enjoy that unique thing? And I think being able to branch out, have relationships with people who are very different from you, and very different from the other people you're interacting with is super, super important.

And I'm proud of that, that I've been able to do that, pursue a lot of different activities and meet a lot of different people. You know, as your senior year progresses, is there anything that you still want to achieve or experience before graduation? Is there any goal that kind of is on your to-do list that you kind of want to check off? Yeah.

So I think that's tough. I think for one, I would love to have another deep run in the playoffs for baseball. I think that was like such a special experience. Our season was extended three, four, five weeks.

Some of the best moments that I had were with the guys on the baseball field. So that would be one. And then in terms of like debate, I would obviously love to, last year, last year our captains for public forum debate, the event that I and Charlie do, were state runner-ups in their event. You know, the event would have like, 250, 300 teams across Ohio.

They were the second place team. I would love to avenge them and bring home a state championship, which would be pretty cool. But other than that, I just hope as a senior that I feel confident about where I'm going next year, right? Stuff like that.

But overall, yeah, I'm pretty happy with what my experience has been at U.S. And I think just closing out on a few of those things would be pretty cool. You know, let's go to that college point. What colleges are you kind of considering?

What do you really want to likely kind of study? And do you have a dream kind of major or career path in mind? Yeah. So being an Anderson Scholar of Entrepreneurship as well, I've been lucky enough to take a lot of like business related classes.

So I think for now, I'm hoping to study economics and then pursue probably a minor in something business finance related or maybe like data science, data analytics related. Not exactly sure what I want to turn that into career wise yet. If I get the finance bug once I'm in school, maybe I'll go down that route. But other than that, I would find work as an economist pretty interesting.

And I think a lot of the things that I learned about in debate would be very applicable to that. In terms of schools, I am not applying to like 24 schools like some of my classmates are. I'll probably apply to around 10. A lot of them are larger public schools.

My favorite school right now is the University of Virginia. And then, you know, there's also a bunch of great options. I'm applying to a few schools in California, a few of the University of California schools. And then both Miami University and Oxford and Ohio State are great options in state as well and provide countless opportunities.

So I'm really lucky to have those as options as well. But yeah, I mean, everybody says, you know, there's a good chance it doesn't end up how you think it's going to end up, but it'll work out in the end. And I'm hoping that they're right. Yeah.

Well, going off the senior speech we heard today about looking back on our time at U.S. and how fast it goes, I'm sure you've reflected a little bit on that. But reflecting further, what does university school mean to you personally now that you've fully made that transition? You've been in our community for now four years. What does U.S. mean to you?

Yeah, I think U.S. means, I think U.S. means a lot to me. I, this weekend we had our like big fall open house and I was lucky enough to sit on the student panel talking to like 150 parents. And one of the parents asked me, like asked the panel what they thought success meant. And I said that I thought success to me was that every day I wake up and I'm super excited to come to school.

That hasn't been something that's always been true, but I'm excited to come to school. I'm excited to do what I'm doing after school. Not always excited for the homework, like I said the other day, but I'm excited to be at U.S. And I think that's, that's the biggest thing for me.

You know, finally, one of the questions that we always ask all our guests is what is their why? So what motivates you to really kind of get out of bed, tackle a super busy schedule, get better and still get motivated to do even more the next day. So Will, what is your why? Yeah, I think my why, I think you kind of said it in part of your question, but I think my why is to be a little bit better, a little bit better at everything you do every day.

And sometimes it's easier to, it's more quantifiable to see how you're getting better, like your grades go up a little bit. But I think just trying to be a little bit of a better person every day, try and focus on something that you love a little bit more every day. I think like Jack was talking about with the senior speech, a big theme in that was focus on what you enjoy. And I think, I'm in the pursuit to find what I love to do and get better at what I love to do and be the best version of myself in whatever way I might want to become the best version of myself in.

But yeah, I think that pretty much sums it up. Will, it's been great having you on the show. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights and experiences and stories. And to our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in and we'll hope you'll join us next Wednesday for the next episode of Late Start Show.

Thank you, Will. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it.