Chloe Rippe
Editor-in-Chief
@chloerippe
On the weekend of September 19, students from the NCHS Debate Team, led by Social Studies teacher and Debate Coach Kristine Goldhawk, participated in the annual Yale Invitational Parliamentary Division Debate Tournament. Three teams represented New Canaan at the event, two of which placed as octo-finalists and semi-finalists respectively.
The teams that participated in the tournament comprised seniors Steven DiCarlo and Debate Team Captain Casey Manzella, seniors Erik Eason and Veronica Ma and junior Mary Wise and sophomore Jack Dahill.
In preparation for the debate, the participants attended an extended debate practice. “We had a practice that ran twice as long as normal debates on the week of the tournament where we practiced previous and potential topics,” Jack said.
While the meeting allowed students to practice speaking skills, the participants did not know the topics that were to be discussed at the tournament. “At parliamentary style debate tournaments, we actually don’t prepare beforehand,” Steven said, who placed with Casey as an octo-finalist. “The competing teams get a choice of three topics, and after a coin flip one team gets to pick the topic and the other team gets to choose the side. Then each team has 15 minutes to prepare for the debate, so a lot of it was intense brainstorming during that short prep time and then thinking on our feet during the actual debate.”
To aid in their performances at the event, the participants learned about their partners’ individual debate styles. “Erik and I collaborated by becoming familiar with each other’s speaking and logic styles and learning to balance one another,” Veronica said. “That’s probably the most important thing for working well with a partner, having a good sense of balance and mutual understanding.”
Although Mary did not know who her partner would be until shortly before the tournament, she used the internet to help her prepare. “It was really helpful to Google what makes a good argument the night before the event, especially because I am relatively new to the sport,” she said.
In addition to placing as a semi-finalist with Erik, Veronica placed as fourth speaker at the tournament. “Even though it was my first time debating at the varsity level and I dropped out of debate for a one-year hiatus, I performed especially well,” she said. “I’m proud because although it was my first time debating at a higher level, my first time debating with Erik, and my first time debating in the parliamentary style, we achieved semi-finalist status and had a super fun time doing it.”
Having learned the results of the Yale Invitational, all of the NCHS participants agreed that the tournament was a success for the Debate Team. Erik and Casey additionally contributed to this success, placing as second speaker and third speaker, respectively.
Steven, who won all four debates on the first day with his partner, Casey, was similarly pleased with what he accomplished at the tournament. “I thought that Casey and I performed pretty well. We went 4-0 on the first day of debating, so we got to advance to round 6 the second day,” he said. “We lost in that round, but for me that was still very good.”
Newer members to the Debate Team, Jack and Mary, did not place at the event, however they were pleased with the experience and their performance. “Since both my partner and I are still relatively new to the debate team I think we did a nice job,” Jack said. “I’m happy with our teamwork. My partner was someone I had never debated with and yet we were able to come together and debate very well.”
The Debate Team’s success also encompassed personal gains. “It’s so amazing to think about how much my public speaking has improved, I can talk in front of people for eight minutes now!” Mary said. “There were people at the tournament who were really good, so it was nice to be able to hear them speak, and most of our judges were Yale students involved in their Speech and Debate clubs, so they gave us helpful feedback.”
Although the Debate Team has set high standards for itself with its recent successes, debate members said they are confident in their abilities and look forward to the year of debate ahead of them. “I don’t think I’d really change anything in terms of preparation for the tournament, because there isn’t much else to do to prepare,” Steven said. “I’m just going to keep going to practice.”
Debate practices are held from 5-6 P.M. on Thursdays at NCHS
