Sophia Goldberg, staff writer
Competing in their first state-qualifying competition, the debate team did not perform as well as hoped at Leuzinger High School this past Saturday, March 5.
Even though no one on the team placed high enough to qualify for state, the team looks to use the experience gained from this tournament in future competitions.
“We are a new team, and I feel any and all experience at these tournaments will help us improve for the future,” co-captain Josh Galst said.
Captain Samantha Boudaie, who participates in the Congress at each competition, believes this tournament was slightly biased toward the Leuzinger debate team, even with the precautions made so bias was kept to a minimum.
“I think it was unfair though, because almost everyone from Leuzinger, where the competition was held, broke, which means they were admitted for the next round at the competition,” Boudaie said. “In order to make sure there is no bias, they assigned each team a letter and then each student a number, but you can tell which letter represents each team because, most of the time, it was the first letter of the school name.”
Boudaie agrees with Galst, though, in that the experience from competitions in their first year as a team will help them improve and place at future tournaments.
“Even though we’ve been practicing for a really long time, none of us qualified for state. We are a first year team so we are improving, and I do believe next year we will have people go to state and possibly win,” Boudaie said.
The team will receive their forms and score sheets from the competition on Wednesday, March 9, and will be able to see their areas of success and area in which they need improvement.