Living legacies

“Niko is one of the best speakers I have ever seen in my life,” Pieropan said.

The excellent reputation of the school’s debate team led Pieropan’s family to relocate here when they considered the prospect of a move from Florida. During middle school, Pieropan had her mind set on journalism. But, after joining the debate team, she found that she had a knack for it. Pieropan’s school in Florida did not have the amazing debate program she was looking for and so she and her family moved to Kansas to transfer to Southwest.

“I think administratively, Southwest cares a lot about debate,” Pieropan said. “At my old school, no one really cared about our success, even though we were really successful. At Southwest, it’s really nice to be able to walk down the hallway and have Mr. [Scott] Roberts congratulate me on a particular tournament. I guess there’s just something so nice to be able to get that recognition and have that feeling of pride.”

Pieropan and McFarland came to Southwest around the same time and built a close bond because of it.

“I have so much love for the Blue Valley Southwest team,” Pieropan said “Mr. McFarland has done so much for me and has supported me in so many different ways and I think that’s because Niko and I have had some success over the past couple of years, and I get to translate some of what I’ve learned throughout that process to the rest of the team.”

After transferring at the start of her junior year, Pieropan and Helixon immediately got to work.

“Maddie has really positively impacted my success,” Niko said. “She was like a savior for me because my freshman year, I had one or two partners. My sophomore year one of those quit and the other one debated with someone else and so it was kind of a disaster. Then comes junior year, and I just had no clue what I was doing, and then Maddie transferred and it was amazing and I just went for it.”

Despite adversity, the team found success including qualifying for the Tournament of Champions their junior year, as well as making it to the finals of the National Catholic Forensic League and semi-finals of the Heritage Hall tournament in Oklahoma and Canals Tournament. They also brought home a 5A state championship — the 11th state debate championship in school history.

“They never let a bad tournament derail them from being successful,” McFarland said. “They worked just as hard, if not harder, after a bad tournament as they did after a good tournament.”

The team’s determination kept them going through all of the wins and all of their losses. No matter how competitive the tournament, they never let that competitive drive change their mood.

“The team is extremely coach-able, they’re always listening to advice and using that device in future debate rounds,” McFarland said. “They work hard, both in finding and producing evidence and refining their arguments. They both inspire me because they’re passionate about their craft and took the activity seriously.”

Niko and Pieropan choose to debate in the critical debate style, rather than policy debate. “You have one topic the entire year, but there are different kinds of styles of argumentation that you can choose to follow,” Pieropan said. “[Critical debate] takes a stance more from the perspective of like, why is this particular piece of scholarship, this particular piece of research problematic for whatever reason? It’s basically more philosophical and more social-based as opposed to policy debate.”

Junior Rory Stanfield, sophomore Shiza Khan and seniors Niko Helixon Maddie Pieropan and Chloe Shi stand holding the 5A state trophy.

All of Niko and Pieropan’s success is part of their school legacy, but they will also take with them important life lessons that will help them tackle anything they face in the future. Niko said he hopes younger students will take a chance on debate.

“Don’t be afraid to stick with it and do it if you truly enjoy it because if you enjoy something, you’re going to do well in it.” Niko said.

Pieropan said their success came from enjoying it and developing a passion for debate.

“Make sure you know the reasons why you’re doing this activity, because intentions matter,” Pieropan said. “The key to success in debate is ... that you love the activity just because you love the activity and not for any other reason.” | maddiesack photos courtesy of BVSW Debate’s Twitter account