Students from JL Crowe Secondary School participated in the LV Rogers 8th Annual Winterfest Debate and Public Speaking Tourney held in Nelson on Feb. 1.
The topics for this tournament were impromptu and the resolutions were released with one hour to prepare.
The very timely topics included, in the novice division, “‘Be It Resolved That’ there should be a commuter train in the Kootenays.”
The junior topic was, “This house would ban travel to or from nations suffering from severe infectious disease outbreaks.”
The senior topic was, “This house believes that developing nations should prioritize economic growth over reducing carbon emissions.”
The timeliness of the resolutions allowed for the students to investigate the topics on their own terms.
The novice category debated in the cross-examination style and the juniors and seniors used the Canadian National Debate Format (CNDF).
JL Crowe results are as follows: Novice, Mikayla Helgren first; Tommy Buckley second; Brady Mailey, third; and Aliya Podmorow, fourth.
There was a team tie for first with both JL Crowe teams taking the honour.
In the junior category: individually, Ripley Shubert first; Katie Mountain third; Mattea Palesch, fourth; Sasha Leithead seventh; Emily Gardner, eighth; and Tim Johnson, ninth.
In the senior division: individually, Mark Yo was fourth; and Bethany Worsnop placed fifth.
Senior team placement saw Mark Yo and Bethany Worsnop paired together to place third.
In the public speaking competition at novice level, Tommy Buckley placed first.
Results from the junior public speaking division were: Sasha Leithead in first place; Mattea Palesch, second; Emily Gardner, fourth; Ripley Shubert, fifth; Tim Johnson, sixth; and Katie Mountain, seventh.
This was the last local tourney before the selection of the West Kootenay Team.
This year the team will travel to Vancouver for the Law Foundation Cup Debate Provincials, which will be held on Feb. 28 and Feb. 29 at St. George’s School.
The Law Foundation Cup (LFC) serves as the BC Debate and Speech Association’s Provincial Debating Championship. The tournament is usually held in March in a different region of the province each year.
The top debaters from each of the eight regions are invited to this tournament with the size of each region’s delegation being based upon the number of schools and debaters in the region.
Each region has the autonomy to determine whether students qualify for provincials based on their individual standing or by team ranking in the region they represent.
The participation cap at the LFC is usually limited to approximately 160 students.
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