harbinger SHAWNEE MISSION EAST
What’s Inside
ISSUE 6, NOV. 17, 2003
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Agreeing to
DISAGREE Debaters have three tournament victories and are resolved to do better – starting with hosting their own competition
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14 2700 3 5
Katie Patrick Folders stuffed with pages of research. Boxes stuffed with hundreds of folders. Closets stuffed with hundreds of boxes. Shawnee Mission East debaters take all of this to tournaments every weekend. After placing at every competition this year, they spent last weekend hosting their own. To most, SME debate would look like a successful squad. The National Forensics League ranked them fourteenth out of 2700 teams nationwide. They’ve placed first or second, in every tournament they have attended. They ranked first out of 13 schools at Shawnee Mission South, first out of 16 at Olathe Northwest and Manhattan High. Their individual successes at every tournament have covered the debate room with certificates and trophies. But they still haven’t achieved all their goals. One was almost accomplished at the Sweepstakes tournament at Olathe Northwest, where they were only one speaker point away from breaking into the top eight novice divisions. “We haven’t broken all season, so it would have been a big year,” Rachel Smidt, who debated in the Olathe Northwest tournament, said. With the immense amount of practice and time that each debater spends on preparation for tournaments, many still believe they can break before the end of the season in Jan. 2004. Over 150 debaters, including 88 novices, are debating this year’s resolution that the United States government should adopt a policy to significantly improve international ocean health. Their cases range from banning cyanide fishing and whaling to creating special fishing-free marine zones and preventing algae blooms, which cause cancer. On the average, debaters spend between 45 minutes to 2 hours every day researching to build these cases and practicing speeches. They are also required to attend four tournaments a semester, six to letter in debate, and three weekends of judging.
See “Tournament,” p. 3