This past weekend, April 13-15, the Jesuit Debate team sent two pairs of debaters to participate in the National Debate Coaches Association National Tournament to wrap up the 2011-2012 season.
To close the season, the teams of Kevin Kim ’12-Jackson Pyke ’14 and Jeff Melsheimer ’14-James Abbott ’14 traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, for the NDCA National Tournament, which is considered one of the hardest tournaments of the year where the best teams across the country come to compete.
After seven debates for each team, both Jesuit teams finished with two wins and five losses. But despite their losing record, the tournament proved to be an incredible learning experience because of the great competition present.
The yearly topic was centered on the exploration and development of Outer Space.
And because all the debaters were apprehensive to venture into a topic so broad, every team made quirky and random arguments ranging from “We should go back in time and repeat an Apollo mission from the 1970s without taking a Bible on board” to “We should travel to the planet Pandora and meet the blue-skinned Na’vi people” from James Cameron’s movie Avatar. The Jesuit debaters quickly adjusted to the unusually expansive topic, however, and found success quite quickly into the season.
Jeff Melsheimer reflected on the season, saying, “My favorite memory from this year was when my partner and I won the Creekview tournament. The stakes were high, as we needed our state points in order to qualify for the state tournament.”
But Melsheimer’s team wasn’t the only one to do well, as Jesuit pulled off the 1-2-3 sweep at Creekview, qualifying all three teams, along with an additional fourth, for the state tournament in the spring. And to prepare, the three initial Jesuit qualifiers spent the rest of the winter traveling all across country, from Massachusetts to California.
At the TFA State Tournament, all four Jesuit teams had notable performances, especially given the inexperience of the majority of the debaters. After five debates, all four teams were in a good position to move on to the 32-team “March Madness” style bracket, with three teams attaining a 3-2 record, and one a 4-2 record.
However, only the teams of Abbott-Pyke and Davis-Kim moved on, but neither was able to advance past the first round.
The initial disappointment from TFA was short-lived and Jesuit immediately began preparing for the aforementioned NDCA National Tournament and the Novice/JV Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia, where Adam Brennan ’13 and Connor O’ Hanlon ’13 performed considerably well.
With past reflection and future expectations aside, a final congratulation goes out to the two senior leaders this year, Kevin Kim and James Mantil. Reflecting on what he will miss most about debate, Mantil said, “I will miss that rush of adrenaline you feel in a debate round.”
On the opposite end, the sophomore Melsheimer spoke of the two seniors and the impact they had on the team this year, saying, “There’s a lot to learn from this year’s upperclassman even though there were only two seniors on the team. Considering it was a young team, James Mantil and Kevin Kim really helped anchor us into being a great team. They provided great leadership and advice and were always willing to help us younger guys improve our debating… ‘J Fish’ and ‘Deuces’ had a big impact on the whole team, and we’re for sure going to miss them next year.”
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As the underclassmen reminisce about the seniors, they have also been looking forward to another exciting year of debating and talking about the new debate topic.
Each year’s debate topic is released in January of the previous year, but in order to keep everyone focused on the current topic, Coach Tracy McFarland forbids anyone from talking about the new subject matter until the conclusion of the last tournament of the year. But once everyone boarded the plane back home from NDCA Nationals, the coaches and debaters began thinking about possible arguments for next year’s topic.
The resolution for next year states:
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its transportation infrastructure investment in the United States.
A topic like this will be a very different change from the Outer Space topic, but Coach McFarland has repeatedly preached, “Do not let anyone tell you whether this is a good or bad topic. It is up to you to decide.”
For the next week or two, the daily afterschool practices will consist of brainstorming in order to get a better frame of reference as to what arguments other schools may make next year. Arguments could include constructing bike paths, revamping highways, developing high-speed rail trains, or increasing airport efficiency.
With the coaches disclosing that they will prioritize the creation of certain types of arguments before the creation of others, the debate team looks to take on a slightly different strategy for the upcoming and hopefully successful 2012-2013 season.
