Historically, Jesuit culminates the competitive debate season with the TFA State tournament and the National Debate Coaches Association national championships. This year’s topic discusses the extremely culturally relevant topic of Security Cooperation of NATO under emerging technologies. With historic finishes in both tournaments, Jesuit certainly had a productive season discussing NATO security cooperation.
TFA State
One of the most competitively significant moments of the season culminates in the Texas Forensic Association State Debate Tournament. This year, the tournament was held in Houston, Texas.
4 Jesuit teams participated this year: Brandon Gibson/Leo Ramirez as Jesuit GR, Lawrence Jin/Tejas Murugesh as Jesuit JM, Dominic Chacko/Kyle Ma as Jesuit CM, and Luke Lastelick/Peter Loh as Jesuit LL. They were also joined by Jesuit alum Jack Moore ‘19 and Zach Watts 17 who assisted and judged.
Both CM and JM finished the preliminary round with 4-2 records. Lawrence and Tejas earned the 11th seed competing against teams from Hendrickson, Houston Dulles, Greenhill, Austin/Round Rock Westwood and Austin Liberal Arts and Sciences. They defeated Coppell in the first elimination round before losing to the Kinkaid School in the second elimination round for 9th place.
Dominic and Kyle earned the 21st seed competing against teams from San Antonio Churchill, Pharr San Juan Alamo Southwest, Greenhill, Lake Travis, Houston Dulles, and Austin Liberal Arts and Sciences. They defeated the 12th seed from Lake Travis in the first elimination round then defeated the 5th seed Churchill high school, ultimately finishing as Quarterfinalists of the tournament!
All four debaters were also top 10 finishers and earned All-State. Jesuit ended the tournament with impressive finishes and continued their 24 year streak of making it to the elimination rounds at TFA State.
NDCA Nationals
In the last tournament of the season, Jesuit JM and LL embarked on their journey to Los Angeles, California to compete in the national championships. Both teams had a fantastic experience and excellent debates to round off the competitive season.
Seniors Tejas and Lawrence finished 17th seed in the tournament and advanced to the elimination rounds, losing in the Double-Octofinals against Montgomery Bell Academy. They competed against teams from Notre Dame High School and Damien High School from California, Montgomery Bell Academy from Tennessee, Pace Academy from Georgia, and Liberal Arts and Science Academy from Austin. They had a great time ending their debate careers in their last tournament.
Junior/Sophomore Combo Peter Loh and Luke Lastelick finished 2-4 in the tournament, competing against Interlake High School from Washington, Glenbrook North High School from Illinois, Westminster High School from Georgia, Greenhill High School from Dallas, and Peninsula High Schol from California. Both debaters had a great time and are excited for the next season.
Furthermore, Coach Lingel was awarded the Service Leadership award as part of years of dedicated service to the activity!
Participant Thoughts
Peter Loh ’24: “It was an honor to compete at the Texas Forensics Association Tournament against experienced competition from across the state. It was fun debating other high schoolers from across the state and getting to know strangers across the debate community. Traveling with the Jesuit debate team to Houston was very enjoyable and I got to bond with members of both the team and coaching staff on the way.”
Tejas Murugesh ’23: “If I could rate these two tournaments 11/10, I would. This was the best experiences I had in debate, especially these being my last tournaments of the year. I learned a lot and took away a lot from the experiences. There were a lot of things I expected and quite I few I didn’t expect. The familiar feeling of adrenaline and anxiety before pairings [before rounds] was definitely familiar when debating at these tournaments. I did not expect the small innovations and alterations in people’s arguments. Although these were known unknowns, they were still a little bit of a surprise to me. However, I think there were also learning experiences and all the past tournaments from this year has helped me to become more aware and prepared. For my fellow brothers who competed at this tournament, I would tell them to take it one debate at a time, and not to get too caught up on the small things. To the freshmen, I would tell them they should most importantly have fun. One aspect of my novice year that I sacrificed was that I never had the opportunity to have fun because I was always focusing on the competitive wins and losses.”
Coach Lingel: “We were excited to be in person for the state tournament. This year was unique because the whole tournament was in a hotel in Houston, which made it different than going to a big high school. Lawrence and Tejas and Dominic all experienced hybrid tournaments last year, making this one all the more special. I am very excited that this year’s tournament allowed us to continue our 24-year streak of having at least one team in the elims. In fact, 20 of those 24 years were at least one team in the Octofinals or better, which is even cooler, having teams finishing fifth and ninth. The seniors this year definitely left their mark with their multiple elim finishes at some of the biggest tournaments in the country, including Emory University, the Blake Tournament, St. Marks, et cetera.”
One of the things I liked was that debate translated pretty well to the online world, so moving forward, I think it’s going to be interesting as we get to primarily all in-person tournaments. I can see a world where one or two of tournaments might still use the online platform as a way to get more students involved.”
Conclusion
The future of Jesuit Debate looks bright with these accomplishments under its belt.
With the NATO topic finished this year, next year’s topic on Fiscal Redistribution would provide even more opportunities for our debaters to hone and perfect their talents.
Stay tuned for future debate news!
