A swirl of suits, ties, and business dress dominate the crowds as nervous chatter fills the room and high school students wait for ballots to be counted. Armed with only their powers of speech and improvisation, prior research, and a debate partner, students from St. Paul Academy and Summit School who participated in the Novice and Junior Varsity Public Forum debate tournaments, as well as the upcoming National Qualifiers immerse themselves in a highly competitive environment that requires skill, hard work and perseverance.

“The competition [this year] is as strong as it’s ever been … it’s going to take luck and our best debating [to make it into Nationals],” Debate Coach Tom Fones said.

A total of four teams from SPA competed in the National Qualifiers tournament on Dec. 13 at SPA. Seniors Shaan Bijwadia with Thomas Toghramadjian, senior Jordan Hughes with junior George Stiffman, senior Afsar Sandozi with sophomore Sarah Wheaton, and sophomores Shefali Bijwadia with Raffi Toghramadjian were selected based on competition style and skill.

The National Qualifiers tournament has a particularly aggressive format: the double elimination structure dictates that teams who lose twice are pulled immediately from competition, so only a select few can make it through.

Fones believes all four teams from SPA have a fighting chance, although competitors such as Eastview and Chanhassen aren’t far behind.
Hughes agrees: “it’s one thing to be selected for a team [to go to the National Qualifiers]; it’s another thing to succeed [when you’re] put into that kind of competitive environment,” he said.

Having gone to the National Qualifiers tournament last year as well, Hughes recommends the experience and has advice for those who want to participate in the future: “Work hard. Start preparing early, and start showing interest early … this is as far as the season goes, it’s worth striving for.”

As practice for the upcoming National Qualifiers, Varsity debate students attended a tournament on Dec. 6 at SPA to, as Fones put it, “audition their arguments and spend time preparing for what the other schools are doing.” All four teams placed in this tournament, taking the top three places, as well as sixth place among competing area schools.

The Novice and Junior Varsity State tournaments are also important hallmarks for debate students. It has been almost a decade since anyone from the debate program has gone to either one of these tournaments, which occurred on Dec. 5-6.

“It was all about logistics; we’ve always had kids who could do it,” Fones said. “I think there’s been a lot of interest … [the tournament] is just the capping off on what has been a really good season for [both] JV and Novice debaters.”

Freshman Numi Katz also loved attending the tournament, although she advises future debaters to “be prepared. Ben [Konstan, Katz’s partner] and I prepared a lot, and it helped so much,” she said.

In the end, Novice, JV, and Varsity debaters alike drew one conclusion from their experiences in a highly competitive environment: as Hughes said “everyone’s in a good place … [but] putting yourself in the most competitive environment and seeing how you fare always helps.”

UPDATE 12/19/2014: Seniors Shaan Bijwadia with Thomas Toghramadjian and sophomores Shefali Bijwadia with Raffi Toghramadjian qualified for the national tournament and will be competing in Dallas, Texas this coming June.