Every year, something is different about WJ. Promethean boards earned immense popularity last year, while brand-new tennis courts and a student commons surprised students this year. However, there is one thing that has never changed over the past several years -the award-winning debate team.
Entering its ninth consecutive year as county champions, the celebrated program still remains relatively unknown among the student body.
At the beginning of every year, anywhere from two to 15 students join the team. As a whole, the team usually has 30 to 40 members, ranging from freshmen to seniors. The team’s regular season is from October to March, when the county championships are held. Tournaments are held on the first Wednesday of every month, and a total of five are held before the county championships. Topics are assigned every two months, and students have a month to prepare and do the necessary research.
“We discuss the assigned topic through brainstorming,” said debate coach Rusty McCrady. “We come up with points in favor and points against the topic.”
Practice debates between fellow teammates are usually held a week before a tournament, and they closely follow the rules, regulations and structure of a real debate. McCrady attributes the team’s success to the abundance of intelligent students and the steps the team takes to prepare for the real debates.
During the monthly tournaments on the first Wednesday of the month, various schools from Montgomery County meet and debate each other on the topic assigned. Students are separated into three brackets based on their record from their previous debates – the winning records, .500 records and the losing records so that students are paired against other students on their skill level. Although only 16 students are guaranteed a spot in the tournament, WJ typically takes the entire team of more than 30 students. The students who are not guaranteed a spot are referred to as standbys. Standbys are allowed to debate on a space–available basis.
Each student is given time to form a constructive, a cross-examination and a rebuttal – the minutes allotted to each segment differ based on who argues affirmatively and who argues negatively. A debate lasts for 40 minutes, and the entire tournament usually runs for five hours.
Many debaters, approximately 50 percent, join the forensics team, which has also been a county champion for the past nine years. Mock trial is also a favorite, with 80 percent of the debate team on mock trial.
“There’s a very large correlation,” said McCrady. “All of the required skills for all of the clubs reinforce each other.”
In the November tournament at Churchill, the team racked up 30 wins and 36 losses, a slow start compared to the previous years as the team regularly averaged 40 wins last fall.
“I do not doubt our team’s debating prowess and our ability to overcome [the hardships],” said senior co-captain Nic Carter. “The harder we are pushed, the harder we will push back.”
Four members, sophomores Cathy Liu and Leah Kraft, junior Tianhao He and senior Nic Carter, recently advanced to the round of 32 in the Bickel and Brewer International Public Policy Forum Debate Contest, out of the original pool of 243 teams from 40 states and 31 countries. As the first seed, they will next be facing the Nanyang School for Girls in Singapore.
McCrady was notified of the event in September, whereby a team of four was assembled to write a 2,800 word paper on the following topic: “The United Nations should substantially increase humanitarian assistance for persons living in poverty.” After successfully qualifying for the contest, the team has now submitted an affirmative against Nanyang School for Girls, who will reply with a negative. The next results will come out in the middle of December.
Additional reporting by Ryan Lynch.
