At 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 20, while most Choate students were in their beds sleeping, a team of twelve debaters headed off to The Roxbury Latin School and brought back several awards, including first place advanced team by the dynamic duo of Ethan Della Rocca ’16 and Leland Ben ’17, and third place advanced speaker by Ben. More than 100 students attended the tournament, the first of the year for Choate and peer schools that included Phillips Exeter, St. Paul’s, The Hotchkiss, The Ethel Walker School, and Loomis Chaffee.
The Choate Debate team brought two four-person advanced teams and one four-person novice team to Roxbury. Each team competed in three rounds of debate, with resolutions ranging from “This House would oppose the gasoline tax” to “This House would require policemen to wear body cameras” to “This House would ban drinks with added sugar.” Like many other debate tournaments, Roxbury Latin followed a parliamentary extemporaneous style. In this format, debaters were given ten minutes to prepare their case, for one of two sides – government or opposition. The two-person team that represent either side of the case then spoke for a total of sixteen minutes, with each member speaking for eight minutes. Debaters are expected to use up their allotted time, with the exception of a thirty second grace period following the eight minutes, with their side’s specific case and rebuttals of their opponent’s case.
Choate performed exceptionally well and brought back many individual and team awards. Della Rocca and Ben also beat a team from Exeter in an exhibition round. Ben came in very close to winning first-place advanced speaker, by a margin of a few points, and won third-place advanced speaker. Every year, the first-place advanced speaker wins a spot on the United States team to compete at the prestigious World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship, which will be held this year on March 30 to April 5, 2016, at Shady Side Academy, in Pittsburgh, Penn.
Ben, a new fifth-former, began debating in his ninth grade year at his former school, The Albany Academies, in Albany, New York. He notched a very successful record his first two years, and became captain as a sophomore. His original inspiration to join debate came after going to his mother’s debates as a young child when she was running for political office. A Republican, Ben’s mother, Jennifer Whaylen, is currently seeking office in Colonie, New York in the Town Board. Quite dedicated, Ben likes debate because it is “more than just logical thinking and public speaking.” He believes “the application of what you learn in debate to real life settings is invaluable. It teaches you to speak and listen, and truly understand what others are saying.”
The Choate Debate team meets all together once a week on Wednesday, with individual training pods occurring every day throughout the week led by junior and senior debate members. In these daily pods, pod leaders work with novices and advanced debaters alike on practicing public speaking and debating skills. In a typical debate round, the two teams will take turns speaking, each pair alternating on speeches and presenting their case. The judge will give the two teams comments, and in a real tournament, the judge will then leave to do more specific ranking and scoring.
Debate team captain Esul Burton ’16 said that while Choate had a very good showing at Roxbury Latin, it was also “the first tournament of the year, so a lot of the debaters, including myself, were a bit rusty. This debate was less about really winning and more about getting into the practice of being in a tournament again.”
Burton began debating her freshman year at her former school, Korea International School, and when she came to Choate as a new sophomore, she was excited to join the team. During both her sophomore and junior years, Burton displayed her superior public speaking skills and won several individual awards for Choate’s team at many tournaments. Her junior year, she became a pod leader and is now the team captain, alongside Vice Captains Christopher Moeckel ’16 and Hakeem Angulu ’16. Burton said that she likes debate because “it’s more than just arguing. Debate trains you to be a better public speaker and a more critical thinker.”
HPRSS faculty member Mr. Neil Shimmield, the head adviser of the debate team, said that the team this year is “very strong and very determined. In the first four tournaments of the year they are going to have over 30 different students debate.” The team also hopes to bring in many more success and potentially have someone from the team qualify for the world’s debate tournament, Burton agreed and noted that even though this was their first tournament, “Our team will be much more prepared for the next tournament.”
The debate team hopes to win several more individual and team awards at future events, including the Stoneleigh Burnham public speaking tournament that was held this past Sunday, October 4. The Choate Debate team received third-place overall team at this tournament. In the future, the debate team hopes to reap more successes at the upcoming St. Sebastian’s tournament on October 11 and the St. Paul’s tournament on October 18.
