Debate pairs win eligibility for Nationals after successful December qualifier

Grace Medrano, The Rubicon|February 6, 2023

Submitted Photo: Maya Sachs

COMPETITION PREP. Cerena Karmaliani, Henry Hilton, Maya Sachs, David Schumacher, and Henry Choi celebrate at the Districts Qualifier tournament in December. SPA Debate earned the top two of three spots for Nationals, which will take place in June in Phoenix, AZ.

Nationals: the highest level of competition for high school debate teams. Debate is a semester-long class, but a far longer extracurricular. Students have the option to continue debate throughout the spring and summer, potentially advancing to State and to Nationals.
Director of Debate Marit Warren said, “The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) qualifies three teams from each district to compete at the National tournament. Teams qualify by competing at the Districts Qualifier tournament in December and finishing in the top three spots. Our SPA teams took the top two spots.”
The debate students have yet to begin preparing in-depth for the tournament, including senior Henry Hilton: “I will probably prepare during finals week, which will undoubtedly be a struggle, and possibly do a preparation tournament beforehand. Hopefully, we can get our cases done as soon as possible so we can get some practice rounds in as well,” he said.

However, as senior Maya Sachs said while explaining the process to get to Nationals, “I’ve been really proud of my teammates for committing to postseason debate last spring and practicing over the summer because everyone has improved so much the past year, and I think that growth has allowed us to succeed.”

Nationals is an important event for debaters. “Debaters work really hard all fall/year to compete against really competitive teams. They prepare for several different topics and have to work on adapting to each round. They should be really proud of the work they put in and earning their spot in the National tournament representing the Central District of Minnesota and SPA,” Warren said.
Sachs explained her excitement to proceed to nationals, saying “I’m really excited and grateful for the opportunity to attend nationals. In a sense, it feels like a right of passage to qualify for nationals… I hope that I can leave a lasting impression on younger students on the team.”
SPA has two teams [four students] progressing to Nationals this year, which will be hosted in Phoenix, AZ on June 11-16.