Arguing a point will hit a fever pitch in the next few weeks as the debate team is holding tryouts starting on Friday in C150 after school. 

To participate in tryouts for the debate team, students must have completed or be currently taking Debate I and have completed an application that was due last month. Additionally, they must have selected Debate II as a class for the 2023-2024 school year.

“Tryouts are going to be in a LD and then extemp format,” junior and extemporaneous debate captain Sindhuja Pannuri said “First, we’re going to have a Lincoln-Douglas modified debate. So that’s going to be a classic debate between two people. And then after that, we’ll have an extemporaneous portion, which is going to be like an impromptu speech.”

Pannuri, who captains one of the three debate teams, believes that through this two-part tryout, she and her fellow captains will get a better idea of students’ debating skills and where they might be most needed.

“We chose to have students tryout this way because we thought it would give us the most information about each individual speaking style because LD requires argumentative skills and extemp requires being able to make things up on the spot,” Pannuri said. “We thought that it would give us a pretty rounded consensus of where someone would fit best in which category.”

For debate teacher Michelle Porter, having students prepare for an entire debate, which requires intensive research, ensures that students are willing to put forth the effort that is needed to be on the debate team.

“We want a program in which kids take it seriously and that they’re just not in there for the social aspect,” Porter said. “And so we want them to work for the right to be in there right from the start and to keep it going all throughout.

Despite such an intensive tryout process, many students are willing to put in the time and effort to prepare for their debates, as debate now plays an integral part in their lives.

“I’m trying out for the debate team because over trying out different types of debates, I’ve grown to love debate and how it’s formatted,” freshman Mahi Kosuri said. “I’m trying out for debate to keep continuing doing that.”

But despite all the debating students will have to do in the tryout process, Porter feels that debate students, old and new, will come together to create a welcoming atmosphere as part of the debate team.

“I’m always excited to see who makes it and who is on what team because that’s recreating another family, so to speak, within debate,” Porter said.