Debate starts the year off strong with three first place victories
On Saturday, the Redhawks debate team competed at the UIL Invitational competition at Rock Hill High School. “I enjoyed this competition at Rock Hill High School as the topics I got were very strong, and in the moment I had fun speaking about my newfound knowledge on niche issues,” junior Riya Sharma said.
September 26, 2022
Making their points, back and forth it went at Saturday’s UIL Princeton Fall Competition where debate students placed first in three of the five categories in the group’s first contest of the 2022-2023 school year.
Some categories required competitors to prepare for a debate the day of the competition while other categories required weeks of preparation.
“For LD, or Lincoln Douglas, you have to prepare a case beforehand,” first place LD winner junior Shruti Bhoyar said. “Ever since the beginning of the school year, since the LD topic came out, we’ve been preparing for the debate.”
Competing in a format she wasn’t used to, junior Zikra Mohammed scored a first place in LD (novice) debate.
“This competition was quite different from the competitions that I’m used to,” Mohammed said. “It was really nerve racking. So it was really a shock when I found out that I won my last round.”
The team had a total of eight students place in the top five in the various competitions (LD – Novice, Persuasive Extemporaneous Speaking, Informative Extemporaneous Speaking, and CX/Policy – Novice).
“All in all, they worked really, really hard,” coach Michelle Porter said. “And they medalled in many categories. So we were happy with the outcome of the competition.”
