In an effort to provide a competitive learning experience to its entry-level debate students, the speech and debate team hosted its annual In House Novice Debate Tournament on Friday, April 5 and Saturday, April 6. Through this event, novice debaters were given an opportunity to showcase what they learned throughout the year and compete against their peers.

“The Novice In House Tournament allows freshmen in the Westwood Debate program an opportunity to compete against their peers, and receive feedback from experienced debaters, marking an important step in their debate career,” Novice Coordinator Harsha Rajesh ’20 said. “Obviously, a competitive element exists, as students compete against each other; nevertheless, the students are still induced to cooperate with others in order to obtain better prep and win rounds. Overall, this tournament is critical to the debate community as it strengthens the bonds between students throughout the community.”

To bring the event to life, speech and debate officers coordinated volunteers to judge, managed food donations, and facilitated the scoring process of the tournament. To ensure a successful competition, the officers dedicated their time and planned for the event weeks in advance.

“As with any tournament or competition, this event required some preparation. However, due to a large number of Varsity students willing to help out and the guidance of our debate director Mr. Wang, the event was able to run in a smooth manner,” Rajesh said.

With this tournament, participating novice debate students were given the ability to prove themselves in competitive events and practice their skills acquired from the Debate I class.

“My experience in Public Forum debate was amazing. Amogh [Mahambare ’22] and I spent about two hours every night prepping for the tournament,” Bryce Keeler ’22 said. “I was extremely satisfied with the results of the competition because it showed that hard work pays off. It was always my dream at the beginning of the year to win In House.”