The debate team hosted an invitational tournament Saturday, Oct. 26,  for schools to compete in on Saturday, October 26th. The tournament consisted of two teams from opposing schools discussing the topic sentence, “The United States federal government should substantially reduce Direct Commercial Sales and/or Foreign Military Sales of arms from the United States.” The affirmative team is for the plan whilst the negative is against and they try to convince a judge to see their point of view as the correct point of view. 

While the Spring Hill debaters may have wanted to debate, they weren’t allowed to compete in this tournament. The students on the debate team had to find judges for the tournament which could lead to a biased verdict if a Spring Hill debater went in front of a Spring Hill judge.

Instead of debating, each student was given a specific task based off of their capabilities. Some tasks consisted of judging, working concessions, tallying points, and many more. 

This year the debate team has a new coach, Alix Kunkle. 

“This is Mr. Kunkle’s first year actually coaching debate and forensics,” according to Elise Belcher, 10, “This is my second year in debate, we are still running the same way. The advanced members of the debate team are just more active in teaching the novice debaters than past years.” 

The debate team is off to a great start to their season, even with all the changes they’ve had to face.