From the midnight excursions of immersed research to hastily drawn rebuttals, preparation for Jesuit Debate’s in-person season opener at Grapevine High School is fraught with a mixture of uncertainty and adrenaline.
Grapevine marks the first in-person season opener since 2019, and such a grand occasion is only matched by a similarly impressive debate topic.
This year’s debate resolution discusses U.S. Security Cooperation with NATO in one or more of the following areas: Biotechnology, Cybersecurity, and A.I. Due to the extremely broad range of policy affirmations in this year’s topic, our debaters worked tirelessly to prepare for a wide spectrum of arguments.
As Jesuit debaters stepped out of Grapevine’s doors, this is what they had to say:
“What I got out of this was a lot of topic knowledge and experience about reacting to the heat of the moment. Out of the losses Luke and I faced, some were described by the judges as extremely close debates which means it could have swung either way if a few better choices were made. Going forward I’m going to try to implement that feedback to hopefully sway these kinds of close debates in the future.” ~~ Peter Loh ’24 Viewpoint Editor
“Grapevine was a blast. It was the first in-person tournament in the normal season I have had since freshman year, which was mind-boggling to even think about. This tournament taught me a lot about what to expect in the upcoming season and how I might want to alter my approach going forward. Even though I didn’t make it to the elimination rounds, it was still a great experience with my awesome debate partner, Kyle Ma (and of course hanging out with the rest of the team too). I also met a few friends that I had made at (debate) camp this summer and got to see a lot of the people I debated last year but in 3D this time. I even got to see a friend I had made in online debate camp 2 years ago for the first time as well!” ~~ Tejas Murugesh ’23
“I thought it was really fun, debating in person for the first time since TFA state. no one did as well as they would have liked to, but it was a learning experience” ~~ Kyle Ma ’24
5 Jesuit Varsity teams and 1 Junior Varsity team competed this year and competed against 55 debaters from 6 different states. Although there were some tough losses throughout the preliminaries, the Jesuit debate team came out having more knowledge of the topic and is ready to tackle the rest of the season!
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