Barstow Debate, one of Barstow’s signature programs, anticipates a strong season this year despite only having two seniors. This dedicated group of largely juniors and sophomores hopes to beat the more experienced competition.
Each year, Barstow Debate focuses on a single topic for their entire seven-month season. This year’s topic is, “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its security cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in one or more of the following areas: artificial intelligence, biotechnology, or cybersecurity.”
Ava Levin (‘24) thinks this year’s topic is an interesting one, “Exploring new technologies is a great way to expand and further our advancements and push back against Russia.” The team expects the bulk of this year’s topic to focus on containing Russia’s influence in Eastern Europe.
Varsity debate students spent 3-7 weeks over the summer preparing for this school year’s debate topic at summer debate camps. Camps are held by universities with college debate teams interested in recruiting high school students. Levin (‘24) attended the California National Debate Institute at the University of Berkeley along with Quinn Luce (‘23), Kimberly Nguyen (‘23), Paranjay Sharma (‘24), Owen Snyder (‘24), Sriram Pattabiraman (‘24), Jayden Sampat (‘24), Mahek Vora (‘25), and Tyler Bauman (‘25). Haddie Schedler (‘25) attended camp online through the University of Michigan.
Students a part of the Varsity team compete against each other in practice debates to prepare for the coming season. The Missouri High School Activities Association prohibits the debate team and other activities from competing until the second weekend in October, putting the team at a disadvantage at their first tournament. Most other schools attended their first tournament the first or second weekend of September.
Such a late start to the season makes practice all the more important for Barstow Debate. Practice debates are difficult, but winners are not decided. Instead, skilled judges provide constructive criticism on the form and content of the squad’s arguments.
Sampat (‘24), a varsity debater, explained the value of a recent practice debate, “I think the judge’s advice helped critique and help me continue developing for this year’s season.”
This year’s team plans to compete quite a bit. Varsity debate students have their first tournament in Chicago next month from October 8th through the 10th, only to return for four days and leave for another tournament that Friday the 14th in Oklahoma City. They have a pretty packed schedule this year with over ten competitions.
Novice debaters (debaters in their first year) will have a slightly easier schedule. They will begin traveling with the varsity debaters to Oklahoma City, though they have already started practicing on Wednesdays with the rest of the team.
Aside from the over the top preparation for their series of tournaments, the varsity members put in a lot of extra work to boost the team’s morale. The varsity kids have also designed T-Shirts and have planned out the catering for the events.
“The team this year is more prepared and more united than we have been since I started,” said Ms. Scott, the varsity coach. This is Ms. Scott’s four year as the varsity debate coach and Mr. Cook’s fifth year as the head debate coach.
The debate squad’s primary goal is to qualify for the Tournament of Champions, or the TOC. To qualify for the TOC, students must obtain two “bids.” Students can get a bid by making it to certain elimination rounds of prestigious tournaments, like the ones in Chicago and Oklahoma City.
While Barstow students may not be able to go see the debate squad in action, you can still wish them luck before their first tournament!
