Stepping into the round you go to defend your side of the prompt, “Democracies ought to ban extremist political parties” (The National Parliamentary Debate League). The catch? You only have a limited amount of time to research and prepare your argument before you have to present it to the judge.
This form of debate, called parliamentary, is one of 12 students can choose to partake in when they join the LHS Speech and Debate Team. The topics for the 12 events can range from moral and ethics based questions to impromptu speeches and dramatic interpretations of plays and monologues.
The wide range of speech and debate events allows anyone to find an event tailored to their interests. The events have two levels; novice events are for people just starting speech and debate while open events are for seasoned students to go against tougher competition.
The only downside for speech and debate is the 5 a.m. wake up call for the 19 tournaments the team attends during the school year. However the positives heavily outweigh the negatives.
“Debate has allowed me to better vocalize my thoughts and create arguments,” said senior Ben Kolman. “It’s [also] helped me be more curious about the world.”
In addition to improving arguments, speech and debate has helped team members look at the different sides of a topic and stay up to date on current events, in a team atmosphere full of supportive peers and coaches ready to help them improve.
“A lot of my friends that I have now I’ve made through speech and debate,” said sophomore Vada Zolman. “A lot of the people who are part of the team have similar interests and are similar people.”
The team hangs out outside of practice to build an incredible team culture too, a term they’ve coined “Speech and De-bonding.”
“The team bond is what I would describe as being like a second family, as cheesy as it sounds,” said Kolman. “I think the coaches and my teammates work hard to create a really tight knit group that has made me feel really at home.”
So far this season the LHS Speech and Debate team has had multiple well earned wins in novice and open events from the last two tournaments such as Lauren Fowler getting first place in open impromptu speaking, Madeline Crandall received fourth place in open impromptu speaking, Aiden Konoske and Hannah Ibser earned fourth place in open duo interpretation and Nessa Skillrud and Vada Zolman got to semifinals in open public forum.
