By Ethan Barriga.
Debate students participated in a virtual competition at Round Rock High School late August, earning awards in Domestic and Foreign Extemporaneous competitions.
With the virtual competition being their first competition to start the season, sophomore Lainey Marz placed fifth in the Domestic Extemporaneous competition, and senior Julia Langkiet placed ninth overall. Lastly, Senior Adene Tilahun placed 11th overall in the Foreign Extemporaneous competition.
One of the competitions was Domestic Extemporaneous, in which Marz and Langkiet both competed in.
“I’ve competed in extemporaneous speaking, which is basically it’s more of a speaking event than a debate event,” Marz said. “You get a topic, usually it’s political, and then you have 30 minutes to crash course yourself on it, and then you give a seven minute speech about it.”
“You review the topic and what it’s about,” Langkiet said. “You then make an affirmative case and a negative case and you basically go over all the details and make a case for each side and practice them, and get your speeches within time range.”
According to Tilahun, debate tournaments begin early, preparing competitors for a long tournament ahead.
“Usually as soon as you get there the competition starts,” Tilahun said. “If you’re not competing, you’re sitting at a table getting ready for whatever your next competition or round is.
They usually last 10 to 12 hours when you come back around six to seven in the evening.”
Langkiet said that she fell in love with debate once debate coach Scott Stephens mentioned it in her freshman year of high school.
“I was in Mr. Stephens’ freshman English class and he mentioned a project that debate students were doing and tried to recruit us,” Langkiet said. “I kind of fell for it, and I switched my schedule to debate for the following year and I loved it ever since.”
Tilahun said that she initially thought debate was arguing with people, but it turned out to be something more.
“Debate is more like building up your confidence and being able to speak in front of a large kind of people,” Tilahun said.
Marz said that she initially enrolled in debate after advice from her sister.
“My older sister had a few friends in debate,” said Marz. “It sounded like fun because I liked talking, and I just fell in love with the community, and it’s just so much fun.”
