New Trier Debate is off to a successful start with a major tournament win, kicking off a rigorous schedule for policy debaters.

New Trier Debate is often overlooked when it comes to school teams, but this year’s competitions started off with a big win.

The co-championship at the Niles Township Invitational Sept. 10-12 helped to shed light on the strength of the debate team, with two New Trier teams in the championship round, juniors Celia Buckman and Connor Warshauer versus seniors William Kirby and AJ Byrne.

Head coach David Weston describes debate as being between a club and a sport. Weston said, “Debate doesn’t really encourage athleticism in a way, but I wouldn’t call it a club, because a club seems like people hang around and just discuss issues, but there is a large competitive aspect of debate.”

While debate may not appear to take up as much free time as other year long athletics or clubs, the research component, along with the traveling and preparation, fills up students’ schedules.

“The schedule can get pretty intense. From mid October to late November, we only have around two weekends off from traveling. When we’re not traveling, it’s a lot of time doing research, practice debates, and drills. Over the summer, we’re at camp for seven weeks. So the time adds up, just in different ways,” said Buckman.

Byrne agreed, citing the research aspect of policy debate, which is what Kirby, Byrne and Buckman all compete in, as being daunting at times. “The research requirement is quite massive with the resolution covering so many different areas for potential arguments,” said Byrne.

Debate’s time commitment is more of a balancing act than anything, said Kirby. “Balancing everything isn’t that bad as long as you’re proactive. It’s not that different from being in season for a sport, except our season just lasts all year.”

The large time commitment pays off, however, when they’re competing in a tournament or competition much like the Niles Invitational. Traveling to tournaments, competing and winning is one of Kirby’s favorite aspects.

“I mainly like the competitive aspect, it’s nice to know that when we go to these national tournaments we are debating against the top high schools in the country and we have a pretty good chance to win.”

Byrne, whose favorite part of debating is the traveling, said, “The best part about debate is that it allows us to travel to many different places all across the country. The travel is also great because it means that we/I have a large amount of friends from different schools all across the country which again, I don’t think many other programs at New Trier can foster.”

Although New Trier debate has had a lot of success as a collective, what’s really important to an individual team’s success is the connection between partners. Kirby and Byrne are partners this debate season.

The best way to be successful is to be competitive, said Byrne.

“Individually the best trait for success is competitiveness, constantly looking for ways to win and exploiting each of them to their fullest in any given debate. Something my partner, William Kirby, and I are quite good at.”

Weston also said the drive to compete and the willingness to put in work as being something that sets the more successful debaters apart.

“It’s the difference between discussing how the government works versus standing up and saying ‘this is something the government should change,’ and willing to defend their position against any opposition.”