In the past months, the New Trier Speech and Debate Team has had tremendous success. With victories in their typically successful Public Forum category, but also in Congressional, Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and various other speech sections, the team looks to round out this school year with more wins.

Nearly 40 debaters are heading to California for the Berkeley Invitational. Zach Urisman, Captain of the team and the 13th best Congressional speaker in the country (debaterankings.com), is very excited and looks to continue his domination in the chamber. “Berkeley is a great tournament for the team to excel and prove their talent to the rest of the country,” said Urisman.

The next two weeks leading up to the tournament will be jam packed with research, practice, and diligent preparation. Martin Oppegaard, a Junior and member of the debate team, said, “Research is one of the most important things we do in debate, without it, we would be grossly unprepared and rather naïve.”

Technological advances have been crucial this year. “The use of paperless debate and electronic storage has made it easier for events to keep track of evidence, cases, argument files, etc,” said David Weston, a teacher and coach of the team.By eliminating the clutter of paper, debaters are more organized and prepared.

Made possible by the iPad initiative, becoming paperless has been easier than ever and students and staff look to continue with this way of conducting debate. Instead of having to lug around file bins full of paper, debaters store all of their information on DropBox and various other storage locations. This allows for them to keep a better tab on all of their back files, allowing for more efficient and thorough research.

With the recent addition of Weston and other coaches for each section, the style of class has looked different during and after school, which has been a contributing factor in their new found success.

Michael Roeser, junior and seasoned veteran, often finds himself staying late to either help the freshman who are new to debate or polish his speaking skills. “I try to do whatever I can to help the team. If that means giving up my free time, I’ll do it.” This sort of dedication is seen across all sections of debate.

By committing extra time to learning and improving their debating, students are developing skills that aren’t easy to come by. When asked about the improvement of the team, Weston said, “Debate can be hard at first. It isn’t something that you come in ready to do. That being said, these students have shown incredible resilience in their learning, and their willingness to learn is bearing fruit.”

Many students have also becoming increasingly involved in debate, often times attending institutes in the summer where they are placed in an environment specifically geared  toward debate. Weston said, “Whether the student is in Policy, Public Forum, Congress, or Lincoln-Douglas, we have debaters interested in those camps. These opportunities create an intense environment where debaters can harness their skills.” By taking their debate to the next tier, students are developing even in the off-season.

Riley McNulty, a junior and a member of the public forum section, recently took her talents to Harvard University for an instructional session with former teacher, P.J Samorian. When asked about the trip, Riley said, “It was a really enriching experience where I was able to take full advantage of the opportunities presented to me.” Hopefully, with more students going to camps, New Trier can continue to excel.

With a variety of national tournaments to close out the year, the speech and debate team will be very active in the coming months, even past the end of the school year. With relentless commitment and devoted members, New Trier looks to make a statement on the local and national level.

Passion and continued involvement will be essential in forthcoming years as the team looks to continue their winning ways and be even more successful than they have been in the past.