Dedication Pays Off

Dedication pays off Debate team makes school history

For the first time in school history, a Free State was muted… it was so bizarre,” junior debater Rita debate team has received three bids to the Joseph said. “I never thought that I would be debating Tournament of Champions in April. this way.”

Juniors Serena Rupp and John Marshall Despite the anticlimactic setup, it was still a will join other top debate teams in the fulfilling moment. nation to compete at the prestigious tournament “It wasn’t like in sports, where it’s like this big hosted by the University of Kentucky. moment where you jump up, you’re like, ‘Yes! Oh

“A lot of the schools that get bids are ones with a my God, we did it.’ It’s just, I guess that would be ton of resources for coaching or funding, which doesn’t considered inappropriate in the academic setting of apply to the Free State debate team,” Rupp said. “So, I debate,” Marshall said. think it was a very fulfilling moment because we knew Debate coach Kelly Thompson is goal-oriented that it was our work that paid off rather than other with his students and tries to encourage them to teams who just have their coaches writing arguments.” develop intrinsic motivation for debate. That approach

The setup of the awards ceremonies where the helped Rupp and Marshall secure their bids to April’s Tournament of Champions bids were announced, as tournament. well as the debates themselves, took place over Zoom. “To get that first bid out of the way to give yourself

“It was just a Zoom call — everyone except the host some reassurance that you’re not wrong about your

Debate partners and juniors Serena Rupp and John Marshall critique their argument strategy for the rest of the tournament. Rupp and Marshall won a recent tournament hosted by Blue Valley Southwest. “It is a qualifier for the tournament of champions, which is a national tournament,” Marshall said. “It’s one of the most prestigious national championships in the country.”

NEWS

John Marshall & Serena Rupp earned Tournament of Champion bids from: - Washburn rural - Blue Valley South West - Glenbrooks Rita Joseph & Jake Chun qualified for the Kansas Debate Classic Invitation

Hard at work, Senior Ethan Harris stares intently at his screen. Although there is a lot of independent work that goes into debate, the team often collaborates to prepare for tournaments, even if they are not debating together. “Preparation is just cooperation between everybody on the team and coordination to, I guess, win as a team as opposed to individuals,” junior John Marshall said. Senior Simon Ruland listens to the other speakers on his virtual debate. When debating, students have to make sure their arguments are based on facts not feelings. “[You can’t] always take the moral high ground or at least like, dogmatically make your view always right,” junior John Marshall said. “You have to make sure that you understand both sides of the resolution so that you can engage with the other team and you can’t let your personal beliefs influence that.”

goals was really nice to have in the first weekend of with coaches and preparing about once-a-week,” our season,” Thompson said. “It’s really rewarding Marshall said. “Most of the work that goes into for me to help kids set goals and then to motivate a tournament is outside of meeting with coaches them towards achieving those goals.” and doing rounds. It’s a lot of research. You know,

Motivation is especially important in debate looking stuff up, preparing arguments and prebecause of all the work that goes into the activity. writing your arguments.”

“The team that got the bid, they were at debate That intense preparation led to high camp from the day after they completed the national expectations, which were met early in the season tournament for seven weeks... and debate camp is with three tournament bids. 12- to 16-hour days, all day every day of nothing “If you put that kind of time, effort and money but debate,” Thompson said. into an activity, you really Marshall compared the time commitment of debate to a part- “It was a very fulfilling have expectations for yourselves,” Thompson said. time job. moment because we “They really believe that they “We’ll do one practice round with some other people on the knew that it was our not only want to be that good but should be that good based team a week, as well as meeting work that paid off.” on their investment.”

pages by Ella Marshall photos by Emma Hardesty story by Emma Holsclaw