The debate team is off to an amazing start this year. There have been two tournaments and the team has been incredibly successful in both.

The team won their first tournament, the Wake Forest Tournament at Northwestern University, and also did exceptional individually. Senior Luc Walkington received an award for Best Speaker, and his partner D’Angelo Obesso was ranked 11th best speaker.

The most recent competition was a major national debate tournament in Dallas, Texas. Walkington and O’Besso were partners again, along with the partnership of Sam Eschker and Ben Barov. In this tournament, the team was seeded second, yet they went undefeated in the prelimination rounds. Walkington continued to show off his skills as he was rated the 8th best speaker at this tournament.

While it may not be well known, our debate team is one of the best in the country.

“We are the only school in the state to be in contention for the Baker Award, which is an award given to the best performing debate team in the country,” D’Angelo Obesso said. As of right now we are second on that list.

To add to the ongoing list of accolades, the team qualified to participate in the Tournament of Champions, which is to be one of the largest national tournaments of the year. Teams are only eligible if they gain more than two “bids” which are based on how far teams advance in each of their tournaments.

Alicia Mathew commented on participating in debate in general. “It’s a really stressful activity, but in the end it’s rewarding,” Mathew said. “You also get to make a lot of friends around the nation.”

Expect the Debate team to keep up their fantastic work!