To Campo’s Debate program success is not an unfamiliar concept, and this year it has continued persistently. In mid-April Debate will be sending juniors Lulu Cho and Lexi Babb to Nationals, which are being held at Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego this year, and seniors Daniel Siu and Adison Schoemehl are currently fourth on the Nationals waitlist. All four debate members have shared their thoughts on how they are preparing for the finale of their season.
First, Siu explained the logistics of Debate’s 2025-2026 performances. He said, “with parliamentary debate, the resolution changes every single round, and you only get 20 minutes before the round to prepare. It’s difficult to know exactly what you’ll be doing, but Campo is known for being a very technical team in terms of running critiques.” He also went on to talk about the qualification process for Nationals: “in order to qualify, it’s not like AcaDeca or Mock Trial. You go to a bunch of local tournaments, and if you do well there, you get points. If you accumulate a certain number of points between the end of August and March 1st, you autoqualify to go to Nationals.”
Schoemehl took the time to express her feelings about the process, one that she became familiar with when her team autoqualified last year. “I hope that Campo does well,” she said. “Only 40 teams maximum in the United States actually reach the threshold points number. You see other schools who are sending thirty teams to Nationals, while Campo has six teams across all grade levels in total right now. We’re dealing with so much less of a pool, so I’m really hoping for the best for our junior team.”
“I’m just kind of excited to be there,” Babb said when asked about how she felt going to Nationals. “I just think it’s really cool because it’s always been something that I wanted to do. I also love debate because you learn a lot of critical theory and how that functions on an ideological level.” She added, “I feel like every time we go to a tournament we learn a lot about that and the arguments our opponents run, and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
Cho, Babb’s partner, expressed similar sentiments. “The goal is definitely winning,” she said. “I’m hoping that we can build Campo debate back up with Nationals this year and then moving into next year.”
With strong debater pairs set for Nationals, and even stronger underclassmen coming up, Debate is well on its way to future successes and can only continue to improve from this year.
