The competitive atmosphere sets in, the team of Jesuit debaters looks at their competition with eyes ready for debate. A press of a button on the timer *BEEP* goes off and the first debater starts their 8-minute constructive speech.
This image was ubiquitous across the Coppell Tournament, hosted by Coppell High School, on October 6-7. Both varsity and novice debaters participated in the in-person tournament.
The teams of Joseph Bui ’28 and Keshav Giridhar ’28 and Shaurya Patel ’28 and Theo Roberts ’28 had immense success (see results here). The teams “closed out” the tournament – a close out is when two teams from the same school win on opposite sides of the bracket, meeting in the Finals. As a result, both teams were co-champions of the tournament. In addition, Speaker awards for the Novice Division were given, Keshav Giridhar earning Top Speaker Honors, his partner Joseph Bui followed close behind at 2nd Speaker, Shaurya Patel at 4th Speaker, and Theo Roberts with 9th Speaker.
What they Learned
Despite the win, the Jesuit Novice debaters still have a lot to learn. None of this could have been accomplished without the great coaching by Mr. Lingel and Dr. McFarland as well as the Jesuit Debate alumni who came to help and were important in supporting the Novice Debaters. Jesuit Novice debaters also competed at Plano West; while they didn’t have the same competitive success as Coppell, they learned a lot needed for preparation for their next tournament at Hockaday. Lots of new debate strategies and arguments will be added as the year progresses, and with the help of Coach Lingel, the Novices will be able to face any challenges presented by rivaling teams.
“The Novices need to make sure they understand their arguments because they need to tell the story of their argument.” -Mr. Lingel
What are the Novices Debating About?
The 2024-25 High School Policy debate topic concerns Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and how the United States Federal Government (USFG) could strengthen three areas: copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks. The official resolution reads: “The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.”
The Novice debaters were extremely excited to learn about this topic, due to its importance domestically and internationally. When asking around the school if intellectual property rights are a big issue, many students replied no, but when informed about AI’s role in IP rights (a heavily debated topic at the tournament) they were surprised to learn of the importance of IP in our world.
Final Thoughts
With the Hockaday tournament right around the corner, the Novice debaters are working hard at each practice to hone their skills so they can succeed at the tournament. Both Mr. Lingel and Dr. McFarland have high hopes of what the Novices will be able to do in the future!
