SPA’s debate team is continuing to maintain its standard of excellence—currently ranked second in the state, the team consists of 96 members, 44 of them beginning debaters.

This year’s achievements live up to the program’s reputation. Liam Will and Zach Dyar are the first SPA debate team in 24 years to pre-qualify for the National Debate Tournament. In a recent tournament attended by 42 schools, SPA held three of the top five places. Additionally, the team is also experimenting more with congressional debate (which tends to focus on debating legislation) than in previous years.

However, Director of Debate Tom Fones said he chooses to focus on other aspects of the team. “We’re doing well, competitively, but I never want to lose sight of people having fun and people learning things.”

The students participating in the class appear to agree with this philosophy. “I really like it a lot. Mr. Fones is awesome,” said ninth grader Cooper Bollinger-Danielson.

Regarding the benefits of participating in debate, sophomore Sophie Cullen said, “You really get to know both sides of an argument, whether you’re in favor of it or whether you’re not; which I think is really important, in current society, to be willing to be open-minded and understand where people are coming from when they have a specific point of view. I like that about debate because I’ve really gotten understood a wide range of topics and different points of view from different people.”