Gus Leffers, Layout Editor
Photo provided by Paul Phillips
After a long and highly successful 2025-26 season, the NCHS Debate Team officially concluded its sason last Thursday. The year was marked by the arrival of new coach Paul Phillips, a series of fantastic freshman performances and an impressive 10 state finalists. Captains Ayush Dave, Emma Hassan, Sophia LaMagna, Alma Hsu and Kashvi Parashar will be succeeded by juniors Gus Leffers and Maggie Nurzia next year, along with Middle School Managers Catherine Ticsa and Aarna Gupta.
The NCHS Debate Team competes in the Connecticut Debate Association (CDA)’s high school circuit, which features 38 participating CT high schools, monthly tournaments and a State Finals event at the end of March for all award-winning debaters. The team performed very well last year, earning 7 awards and placing 2nd and 3rd in the state in the Varsity and Novice divisions respectively.
This year, however, the team dramatically outperformed all expectations, with an amazing 12 award-winning performances in 6 tournaments. The team’s season highlight was CDA December tournament hosted at (rival) King School. There, New Canaan placed second and fourth in the Varsity division, thanks to senior teams Hsu-LaMagna and Dave-Hassan, respectively. The Novice division, in turn, was swept by Max Leffers and Vivaan Powari, who also won the first and third place speaking prizes respectively.
That drastic, year-by-year improvement can be mostly accredited to a group of talented freshman debaters, who won 7 of those 12 medals: Max, Anaya Ansh, Anushka Dave, Aarna Prakash, Olivia Seo (who won the yearly ‘March Madness’ club bracket) and Connor Oak, plus Vivaan as a returning sophomore. Most participated in the recently-established Saxe debate club, taught by the high school team captains, which gave them valuable experience and preparation for the rigors of high school debate.
“We started the program a few years ago, not just to make them really great debaters, but more to build confidence and get the middle schoolers to be able to advocate for themselves,” said Ayush, one of the senior captains. “A lot of them end up matriculating to the high school and joining our high school team, and they end up being really good!”
Sophia, another captain, thought that transformation was one of the most important changes she observed over her 4 years in the program: “We’ve had many younger group members than in past years, so we’ve kind of become a younger team, which is really great. That means that we have a solid base for the team to grow in future years,” she said.
According to Kashvi, another captain, the high school club offers valuable experiences and opportunities for participating students, including the chance to develop public speaking skills: “When I was a freshman, I was not as confident as I am now. In debate you get a better sense of the world, and you get mentorship from older people; I’ve just learned a lot from Ms. Stevens, Mr. Phillips, and my fellow debaters, and I think it’s a really valuable experience to have, not just in high school but also in middle school,” she said.
The team, which will meet every Wednesday next year from 2:40-4:00 in Room 207, is open to all interested students. “We definitely don’t require anyone to compete. In fact, there’s a good chunk of our members that don’t compete, or, for their first tournament, will just go and observe two other kids while they debate,” said Ayush. “It’s really just up to you and what you make of it.”
