On Saturday, Nov. 16, the debate team at Independence High School participated in the second debate tournament of their season sponsored by the Washington-Arlington Catholic Forensic League (WACFL) at Rock Ridge High School. Two teams, with one led by juniors Rahul Kumar and Rashmi Francis, and the other led by sophomores Hriday Unadkat and Darsh Ravada, placed among the top six teams at the tournament.

With their accomplishments at the tournament, both teams have earned a full qualification for Metro Finals, which is a large tournament that occurs at the end of the normal debate season in the spring. To put it in perspective, the tournament is considered to be the equivalent to the “playoffs” of other sports. Teams who compete in Metro Finals have the opportunity to qualify for tournaments in the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL).

Kumar, one of two captains of the Public Forum (PF) branch of debate, expressed his satisfaction with the achievements made by debate, along with how far they had come in their first year. “We consider this a very successful run. It is even more impressive since we have a relatively small debate team (only about 25-30 as compared to the 70+ in Rock Ridge High School),” he said. He also stated that he was pleased with debate’s performance and his hope that their success would last. “We felt good about the event and we were all very pleased with our performance at the first tournament,” he said

Junior Aadi Aggarwal, captain of the Lincoln-Douglas (LD) branch of debate, also expressed his hope that the team would continue to make achievements in its competitions. “We are looking to start going to college tournaments and getting national exposure,” he said. He also spoke about the enthusiasm of the students participating in debate. “At first, everyone is nervous about it. It’s new and something unfamiliar, so it’s a mix of fear and excitement. However, as the tournament goes on, you can see everyone be more comfortable with the environment and want to do more and go to more tournaments. It’s a really good thing to see”.

Mr. Jeff Bowers, the sponsor for the Lincoln-Douglas branch, had high praise for the students’ eagerness also. “To see students come out in such large numbers is great, but also to see that they’re coming to debate every week and competing every month and see those skills develop and improve — that’s what’s really exciting about debate.”

With the debate team already making huge leaps and bounds, it is clear that they will try to add to their already lengthy collection of accolades. Although they made many accomplishments at the second WACFL tournament, time will tell if their success will continue.