Debate Promotes Novices to Varsity

After a big win for the novice team at the Cal Parli Invitational tournament, the debate club promoted novice members to the varsity level in order to compete at the Jon Schamber tournament at the University of Pacific from October 27-30.

“The last tournament was Cal Parli, and it was at UC Berkeley. Our team did really well and we had 2 varsity teams reach quarter-finals, which is the top 8, and our novice team won the entire division,” said Sharon Yuan.

Since the novice team did so well, the club decided to give them a chance against more accomplished teams at the Jon Shamber invitational.

According to club vice president Shannon Bonet, the Jon Schamber tournament is “an invitational so its a nationally recognized tournament, so it’s not league based or just our Golden Gate area.”

According to Yuan, topics ranging from agriculture to Puerto Rico were provided in advance, which allowed the debate team to prepare for the tournament with copious research and practice debates.

The club entered 5 varsity teams in the tournament. 4 of the teams made it to the elimination rounds and were among the top 16 teams out of the 70 team field. “We actually did very well at this tournament,” said Bonet.

“I am very proud to say our younger novice team that just entered varsity, Remy Benner and Max Schultz, they made it to semifinals further than any of our more experienced varsity members. I am very proud of them for doing so,” said Bonet.

“I was competing on JV last year, but after doing pretty well, my team and I got bumped up to varsity. It was definitely a big ego boost for myself,” said sophomore Max Schultz. “It was a good thing to know that we were helping out Campo and that the debate team is still a force to be reckoned with. We are still able to hold our own in the debate circuit.”