The debate team is having major success this year. The varsity debaters won the Silver Lake tournament, took second at the Emporia tournament and fifth in the opening tournament.
Officers of the debate team are President, Cassidy Harden, Vice President, Dameon Boland and Historian Coby Worcester. The leading debaters have been Emily Stanley and Peyton Wettengel on varsity and Reagan Propps and Jillian Roy on JV.
This year’s debate topic is: “The United States federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance.”
The debaters research and present an argument, with evidence, about this topic. The argument will either be affirmative, agreeing with the topic, or negative, disagreeing with the topic. The debaters don’t get to choose whether they are affirmative or negative, and they will be affirmative for five rounds and then the next five rounds, they will be negative.
The judges listen to the arguments that are presented by two teams of two and then after five rounds, they determine who is the best team.
Emily Stanley and Peyton Wettengel made Seaman High history at the Debate Coaches Invitational when they got a bid, which had only happened two times.“I do debate because I like getting to explore topics that I wouldn’t be able to explore otherwise, and I love being surrounded by other like-minded individuals,” junior Emily Stanley says.
First-year debaters, Ashlyn Schuetz and Noah Belt- got 5th at Newton in Open.
“One of the reasons I love coaching debate is because it’s really fun to watch the first year kids figure the whole thing out,” says debate coach, David Ralph, “I love seeing how well they do in their first competitions.”
Being in debate can help develop or improve public speaking skills, and it also gives experience in law.
“I am looking into post secondary law, and debate helps any kind of fear of public speaking. It also teaches you good organization and time management skills,” says junior Cameron Charity, “I strongly encourage other people to do debate because it is like having a second family and it really helps with your people skills.”