With the start of the debate season just this past week and our home tournament coming up, we at Sightline thought we ought to look back at the team’s performance over the summer. Over the course of the summer many are aware that Bethany’s extra curricular activities wind down but this summer two students had the opportunity to compete in the biggest competition of their season. From June 11th-16th the National Speech and Debate tournament nicknamed the “Cactus Classic” was held in Phoenix Arizona. Ian McHugh and Nico Brenneman-Ochoa competed in the National Tournament in Lincoln-Douglas style debate, a one on one philosophical debate, and Extemporaneous debate, a lightning quick 6 minute debate in which topics are released 20 minutes before rounds start. Over the course of the week both Ian and Nico and Michael their coach competed against some of the fiercest competition in the country, hiked through the scorching desert, and tried the legendary In N Out Burger which unfortunately was overhyped.
Competition was tough and though unfortunately neither Ian or Nico advanced out of the 360 preliminary competitors into the top 60 in the nation they did get to experience an incredible environment of competition. While competition was fierce the people at this tournament were incredibly kind and outgoing. “After getting eliminated from my final round I was invited to join a game of basketball just for fun, though I had to leave soon after by then a group of about 11 people who didn’t previously know each other had joined as we played in our dress clothes just for the fun of it ” said Nico.
So as the season starts up again we look forward to January when our team will compete again to send off the best of the best to Nationals in 2024, this season in Des Moines Iowa.