BALTIMORE — You could hear a clip over and over again from Kalil Bennett and still not understand a word he's saying.
It's called spreading, a debate style that's faster than you could ever imagine, for Kalil it's 240 words per minute.
"You just speak really fast. My partner David is a little faster than me. He's at about 250 words per minute. You're just speaking at mock five every time," Kalil said.
But their speeches are well researched and organized.
In one of his speeches, he talks about cyber security of military satellites and how our system and how our system needs to be updated. He won first place in the Pennsbury Falcon Invitational with his speedy speech.
"It just takes listening to debates and just practicing speaking at that level, speaking at that pace. It also allows you to be able to comprehend people at that pace as well," Kalil said. "The hardest thing about debate is consistency. I think it takes a lot of preparation and things that a lot of people aren't willing to do."
His collection of awards shows how willing he's been to follow his path. He joined the debate club at Calvert Hall High School his freshman year. Today, he's ranked the number one policy debater in Maryland, and 11th in the country.
It's taken a lot of practice and hard work to get here.
"Sometimes I'll go into my room, put my Beatz on and listen to a debate that's already happened on YouTube. I'll try to follow the arguments and write them down because that also lets you hear him and listen so you ca respond accordingly," Kalil said.
And his mom, Nakita Bennett, wasn't the only one who noticed her son.
"I didn't know like with debaters, colleges follow debate students like athletic programs follow athletes. They had been watching his scores, how well he did, his rankings," Nakita said.
His favorite school, Emory University in Georgia, one of the top debate colleges, was also watching him. He applied for the Robert W. Woodruff scholarship and out of 11,000 applicants, he won a full ride.
"It was unbelievable. I cried so hard. I felt so humble that they thought enough of Kalil and his academic accomplishment that too him there," Nakita said.
"I never knew the possibilities when I first joined the debate team at Calvert Hall, but when I knew as I got better and kept putting the work in, it would pay off somehow. I just didn't know when and where," Kalil said.
