To say they know what they are talking about is probably an understatement. They really know their stuff. So much so that the Mercer Island High School debate team is sending students to national competitions, after just winning its third straight state title.
In a room lined with trophies from past years and stacked with Rubbermaid tubs filled with evidence needed to back up their arguments, Jane McCoy’s team is a focused but fun-loving group.
“They, themselves, are the brains of this,” said McCoy, the team’s adviser for the past six years and an English teacher at MIHS. The team won the most recent title at the state competition held at the University of Puget Sound on March 20.
The type of debate which students choose to do dictates the type of topics they will speak about, but all the students acknowledged that the debaters have a wide range within their topics.
In policy debate, the focus is on policies, be it domestic or international. For example, said Sean Ghods, who won the state speaker award and is attending the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Ky., this May, topics in recent years have included social services and education, and last year they debated alternative energy. In the Lincoln/Douglas competition, named after the famous presidential debates, the topics are more philosophical, said junior Steven Adler, a semifinalist at this year’s state competition.
Since the beginning of the school year, the group, whose members are all enrolled in McCoy’s debate class at the high school, has been attending local and national tournaments, sometimes traveling as far as New York for competitions.
“When we’re at a tournament, it’s all about debate,” said McCoy. The team spends hours a week preparing, researching and keeping themselves up to date on current topics before they practice speaking fast and fluently, and sparring verbally with their opponents. At each competition the team must have hard copies of any case or evidence that they cite while debating, so everyone lugs around tubs filled with paper copies of their materials.
“We need to be able to argue the negative and the positive, so that adds to it,” said Stephanie Permut, who won the 2008 state speaking title, and was fourth this year. Each round of debating, depending on which type of debate it is, lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours with six to eight rounds making one full debate. As policy coach Chris McCool said, it makes for a very long day or weekend, as most of the out-of-town competitions last two or three days.
“It’s a test of endurance, for the most part,” he said.
Obviously, the MIHS group has passed that test and is looking for the next one.
“Debate really forces you to work a lot,” said junior Patrick Fong. “There are a wide range of things that you need to learn that you wouldn’t normally get in a classroom.” Fong finished third at state in policy debate with teammate Elissa Picozzi, the group’s lone sophomore.
Aaron Poor, Zach Gordy, Fong and Picozzi each qualified to compete in the National League tournament in June in Kansas City, Mo., based on their performance at state, while Permut, Ghods and Adler have been invited to attend the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Ky., in May. The students pay their own way to Nationals and any other out-of-area competition that they attend.
Donations can be made to the Debate Team Booster Club at MIHS.
