Carson High School debate team shines at home tournament
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Mon, 01/29/2024 - 6:28pm
Carson High School recently hosted the fifth speech and debate tournament of the season in Carson City. This competition included 15 schools, 186 competitors and 81 judges. Participating students took home multiple awards in the tournament.
We would like to begin by thanking everyone who volunteered their time to judge as well as the 40-plus teachers and staff at Carson High who shared their rooms allowing the tournament to proceed.
The team would also like to send out special thanks to the CHS ROTC program for assisting with running concessions, and the CHS culinary program for providing materials needed to feed everyone at the two day event.
The team continued its very successful season, with members advancing to final rounds in 9 out of 10 events.
Claire Dillon finished in 4th place in impromptu speaking, creating five minute speeches on topics like blather, song lyrics, and Calvin and Hobbes comics.
Humorous interpretation saw Ellie Demet and Peter Woodberry in the final round. Ellie finished 6th with her cutting of Peabody and Sherman while Peter Woodberry crushed the competition with his piece titled May the Best Man Win taking five 1st place ballots.
Summer McGill and Emily Tran finished 5th and 2nd respectively in Program Oral Interpretation. Weaving together multiple forms of media to create a story. Summer focused on the challenges of Alzheimer's disease and Emily examined Asian American Stereotypes.
Viviana Castro finished in 1st place with her original oratory titled A Crisis in Camouflage calling action on America’s mental health crisis among veterans.
Alexis Ropp and Kyle Allen took 3rd and 1st in Foreign Extemporaneous speaking. Giving speeches on topics such as “How should the President of Brazil manage indigenous Lands?”
The team also had its strongest showing in debate events this season.
Partners Samantha Anderson and Ellie Dement finished 3rd in BQ and Claire Dillon finished undefeated debating whether science and supernatural are compatible.
Lizzie Barker and Peter Woodbury also finished undefeated in public forum debating if the Federal Government should repeal section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The pair also took the top 2 speaker awards in the event.
In Lincoln Douglas, John Fenton finished 2nd overall in novice and Viviana Castro finished 1st examining the US military presence in North Africa and West Asia.
Viviana also took the top speaker spot in Lincoln Douglas. Policy partners Kaden Sa and Max Gold claimed 2nd place while Vivi Mellow claimed the best speaker award debating whether the federal government should expand medicare, provide a jobs guarantee, or provide a universal basic income.
The team also competed in the annual American Legion Oratorical Competition. The competition includes two rounds, the first is a 10 minute speech on a citizen’s duty under the Constitution.
The 2nd round is a 7 minute speech on an amendment or article drawn at the competition. Thomas Lance placed 2nd and Viviana Castro took 1st and will move on to the next round of the competition.
