The debate team competed in its first tournament of the year Sept. 1 and 2 at Hendrickson High School. McCallum debaters competed in three different events at the tournament: congress, public forum, and policy debate.
Team captains juniors Emy Chen and Martha Pruitt advanced to the final round of the tournament in policy debate placing second behind LASA. The policy team of Evangeline Hart and Grace Valdez placed third at the tournament. No one from the public forum or congress teams advanced to the elimination rounds at the tournament.
Pruitt and Chen came to the tournament with a pre-written speech and examined the cases they anticipated encountering at the tournament so they could prepare ways to defend their position against likely counterarguments.
“[We built] one defense and made sure it [was] really strong, ” Pruitt said.
Pruitt also said they brainstormed ways to anticipate and counter their opponents’ arguments.
“We say, ‘Oh if I was going to attack this, what would I hit?’ and make sure we have responses to that and make sure we strengthen our weaknesses.”
Pruitt and Chen are new to the captain’s role this year, but Chen is confident they can succeed.
“A lot of our responsibilities are split, and the kids in our classes are really hard-working and involved, so it’s not a lot of work on our part to make sure they are doing what they need to do,” Chen said.
The Hendrickson tournament was not a new experience for Pruitt and Chen. as they competed a year ago. But Chen said emotions were riding high as the tournament approached.
“It has been such a long time since I have been able to do these tournaments, so [I felt] excitement more than anything and some nerves because it [was our] first tournament of the year,” Chen said.
According to Vaughn Stockton, the debate adviser, having a debate class at Mac this year helped them prepare for the tournament. Last year, the debate was an after-school club not an academic class.
“[For congress] they released a list of proposed topics that we were able to review ahead of time. Then for the other two public forums and policies we had access to the topic of discussion ahead of time and reviewed cases and access materials that were available online,” Stockton said.
Stockton said he hopes the class will help the team realize another important goal: to solidify who they are as a group and to build a team identity similar to what sports teams have.
“I want us to create a set of norms that can be used each year,” Stockton said.
He would like to build a program culture where debaters become more self-sufficient in each of the areas in which the team competes.
The debate team’s next tournament will be Oct. 22 and 23 at Westwood High School.
