Press Release
The Emery High debate students competed well at both the Carbon and Moab tournaments. The Spartans competed against seven schools at Carbon and took second place as a team. They then competed against 14 schools at the Red Rock Tournament in Moab and took sixth. The Red Rock Tournament hosted schools from 1A-6A and some of the schools were from neighboring states. The competition was extremely tough and gave the Spartans great experience.
Outside of team sweepstakes points, individual students did amazing. Each student participates in a variety of debate and speaking events. Each event has its own challenges and set of rules. Lincoln-Douglas is a lawyer style debate that focuses on ethics. Policy is a two-hour debate where students propose a plan to fix a problem facing the nation and debate the merits of their plan versus their opponents’ plan.
Public forum is an old-fashioned partner debate where students have to prepare both sides of the debate for a previously-assigned topic. They find out which side they will be debating with the flip of a coin. Student Congress is set up like an actual session of US Congress and students debate bills that have been proposed by students across the state of Utah.
Speaking events include Original Oratory, where students write and deliver an original speech about something they are passionate about. Foreign and National Extemp are very difficult events where students are given a current event question based on issues facing the nation and the world. They get 30 minutes to research, write and memorize a speech answering the question. The speech must be between 5-7 minutes.
Spontaneous Argumentation (or SpAr) is an event where students receive a debate topic and only get one minute to prepare before they go against their opponent. It requires students to think on their feet and use logic rather than research to prove their point.
The Interps are acting events where students have to portray a scene that represents human emotion or experiences. Students learn that all good speaking or debating has an acting component. A good public speaker must be able to help their audience “feel” something, so the interps are meant to appeal to the audience emotionally. Humorous interp must be funny while dramatic interps appeal to all other emotions outside of humor. Duo interps have the same focus on humor or drama, but are performed with a partner.
“I am so proud of our debate team, regardless of the outcome of their events,” coach Kathrine DeBry said.
The Spartans are still looking forward to a few more tournaments. They will be debating at Manti High School on Jan. 8, at Utah Valley University on Jan. 21-22, Region on Feb. 26, and 3A State on March 18 and 19.
Results from the Carbon and Moab tournaments:
Carbon Results:
– Jorgen Robinson – 4th in Student Congress
– Kelsey Thomas – 1st in Lincoln Douglas Debate
– Zayne Perea and Alexander Frederick – 1st in Policy Debate
– Zayne Perea – 1st in Foregin Extemporaneous Speaking
– Alexander Frederick – 4th in National Extemporaneous Speaking
– Trayce Justesen – 1st in Spontaneous Argumentation
– Abigail Valentine and Arley Garcia – 2nd in Duo Interpretation
– Lillyth Belknap and Thashia Wright – 3rd in Duo Interpretation
– Haivyn Pitchforth – 3rd in Humorous Interpretation
– Courtney Behling – 3rd in Original Oratory
Moab Results:
– Michael Wickman – 1st in Dramatic Interpretation
– Michael Wickman and Addison Christensen – 2nd in Duo Interpretation
– Haylie McArthur – 2nd in Character Congress
– Jorgen Robinson – 3rd in Character Congress
– Kelsey Thomas – 2nd in News Anchor
(Character Congress is a seasonal event where students draw a character that they have to “become” for their Congressional Debate. McArthur was Hermione Granger and Robinson was the “Bowler-Hat-Guy” from Meet the Robinsons. News Anchor is another seasonal event where students write a series of humorous news stories to share in a news anchor format. Kelsey wrote a broad case called Hello Hollywood where she described the humorous shenanigans of various Hollywood celebrities in the news today.)
