Despite many challenges, Barstow’s debate squad perseveres through KCKCC.
With less than a week to recover from the various illnesses contracted at the previous competition and at school, Barstow’s novice and varsity squad made their way to the KCKCC campus. Despite horrific weather conditions and confusing hallways, the team managed to pull through and have two teams make it to the quarter-finals!
Starting on Friday, November 4, students and coaches braved their way through the rain and headed to Kansas City Kansas Community College for their first and only local debate tournament.
Junior Ava Levin was happy with her team’s improvement from the previous tournament, saying, “We performed much better than at our last one. We were concerned because we switched our speaker positions, but it turned out really well.”
Each debate duo must have one debater that focuses on affirming this years resolution while the other focuses on negating it. Both debaters must debate as a team on each side, but each partner puts more research and preparation emphasis on one side.
The team competed in six rounds total, with the exception of two novice quarter-finalist teams, Elliot Osman (‘26) and Darrin Goodman (‘26), who competed in eight rounds, and Romina Taghizadeh (‘26) and Inaya Gadit (‘26), who competed in seven rounds, after receiving a bye during the first elimination round.
Barstow also received several speaker awards. Osman received 11th overall in the novice division, barely missing the top 10. The Varsity squad had four debaters placed in the top 50 (out of nearly 100), with Paranjay Sharma (‘24), Quinn Luce (‘23), Ava Levin, and Tyler Bauman (‘25) placing 31st, 36th, 47th, and 50th, respectively.
While no varsity teams advanced to eliminations, the Barstow Debate Team held strong ground. Three teams ended with a 3-3 record, two teams with a 2-4 record, and one with a 1-5. The other novice team also ended with a 1-5, however, all teams learned more about the intricacies of the activity.
Kimberly Nguyen (‘23) learned a lot from the judges, saying, “Although some of the feedback didn’t seem great, I realized it is because I don’t have the same style of debate as them, but now I know what I need to work on in the future.”
Barstow debate has one more tournament this semester starting on Friday. Be sure to wish them luck!
