Bryce Valley’s first speech and debate win was an emotional experience. When their team was announced as this year’s winners, Bryce Valley exploded with excitement. Still, there was a lot of behind-the-scenes effort that most of us didn’t get to see going into it.
Oscar Word, junior, and Mason Beesley and Dallen Platt, seniors, from Bryce Valley helped give some insight into what exactly makes speech and debate so special. It takes preparation, teamwork, good coaches and, of course, bulletproof arguments to do well at debate. And Bryce Valley had it all!
Behind-the-Scenes
In terms of how to prepare, every debate event is different. Bryce Valley’s great debaters had some specific techniques that they found helpful for their individual specialties.
Public Forum Debate
Mason and Dallen won gold in what is called a “Public Forum” debate. It’s the only two-on-two team debate. It requires team members to think and act well together as they plan and argue for or against a resolution based on current events.
Mason and Dallen found a lot of advantages to debating as a team. It certainly helped that they knew each other well and were willing to be patient with each other.
But they also liked how their two voices and ideas added upon each other. For example, debating as a team “allows you to communicate and have two points of view on any subject. It is like literally putting two heads together; thinking faster and more effectively,” they said.
Extemporaneous Speaking and Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Oscar also found a way to get two points of view on his subjects. Even though he debated alone, he found it helpful to attempt to tear down his own arguments. “It helped to ensure my own arguments were bulletproof; additionally, my understanding of the key questions in the argument improved,” he said.
Oscar also won gold in both of his events: Lincoln-Douglas and Extemporaneous.
LD is your traditional debate with two opponents arguing for and against a resolution. Extemp, on the other hand, is the “art of giving speeches on the spot,” as the National Speech and Debate Association puts it. The debater has to know the topic. How they will debate, though, and what they will argue will all be decided on the spot.
Oscar summed up his debate style pretty well in his last few lines: “Ultimately, to prepare, you need to know what you’re talking about, or at least you have to be ready to pretend.” Either way, he was ready.
First Win: The Importance of Being a Team
Oscar was surprised that this year was Bryce Valley’s first win because last year they lost some really good seniors. Indeed Bryce Valley’s Milo Atwood, Ben Jensen and Trinity Whitfield all won gold and silver medals at last year’s state debate competition.
But eventually Oscar decided he could chalk this year’s success up to three things. This is what he said:
- The first is the fact that, this year more than ever, every member of the team had important contributions to make. No single person on the team was obviously the best, and nobody was considered useless, and that’s how it has to be in Debate. Everyone scores, regardless of medals.
- Secondly, it’s clear that our program at Bryce Valley has finally had time to mature. While Debate was kind of a new thing for a while, we’ve finally had time to establish a tradition for each event and pass down knowledge between classes, and it’s crystallized into success.
- Finally, and while this isn’t unique to this year, our success in large part comes down to just how much our coaches care about us. I really want to say thank you to Lacey Jensen and Rowdy Miller, who are truly some of the best coaches ever, full stop. They know their stuff, and they fight tooth and nail for us behind the scenes.
Bryce Valley’s coaches were there through the tough years of building a new program and the long nights of practice and memorization. And they were there when the Bryce Valley debate team finally won!
There were so many people, from past seniors, to team members, to coaches, who helped make this win possible.
What’s So Great about Being on the Debate Team
Like good arguers, these students each ended their comments with a strong conclusion for why they loved being on the Bryce Valley debate team.
Mason and Dallen said the thing they would miss the most about debate would be “interacting with the people on the team, and other teams (who are all very witty and hilarious to be around).”
Oscar shared a similar sentiment. Compared to a lot of other school activities, Oscar actually found debate “far more relaxed, inclusive, and forgiving, while still maintaining a competitive edge and encouraging us to do well.”
“If everything was more like that,” he added, “the world would be a much better place.”
– The Byway
Feature image caption: The Bryce Valley speech and debate team and coaches power pose with their 1st place trophy. Courtesy BVHS/Facebook.