Debate team travels to Tournament of Champions
Twenty-two Upper School debate students attended the Tournament of Champions hosted annually at the University of Kentucky from April 26 to 28.
If the competitor reaches a certain round after prelims and also earns two bids there by placing in those previous tournaments, the student qualifies for the Tournament of Champions.
Upper School students participated in four out of the five events offered: Public Forum, Congressional Debate, Lincoln Douglas, and Policy Debate. Freshman Aditya Dhar was the only Upper School student, out of all the events, who made it to the Congressional Debate semifinals, although he did not place. Qualifying high school students from all over the nation competed in this tournament. There were 101 teams in Public Forum, 98 entries in Congressional Debate, 100 entries in Lincoln Douglas, and 85 entries in Policy Debate.
Along with the students participating, debate coaches Carol Green, Gregory Achten and Jenny Heidt mentored the students throughout the competition.
As a senior, Kevin Duraiswamy found this tournament, the last one of his high school career, to be a great bonding experience for the team.
“Overall it’s a very emotional experience in that you spend the entire year usually working to get towards this tournament, because it’s not just any tournament,” he said. “It’s a tournament that’s really hard to qualify to.”
Similarly, Alexander Lam (9) recognizes the amount of work that goes into preparing for this one event and reflects on his experience at the tournament.
“I put a lot of time and effort into this,” he said. “I think it’s a really great foundation for me. Since I’m a freshman, I can use this as a good starting point and it’s a good experience for me.”
The Tournament of Champions was the last debate tournament for the 2013-2014 school year.
This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on May 16, 2014.
Raveena Kapatkar (12) is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Harker Aquila. She is a senior and this is her fourth year on staff. As a freshman, she was a reporter...
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Shannon Su is the Managing Editor and Executive News Director of Harker Aquila. She joined the program as a reporter her freshman year and has held many...