Debate opened its season with an online tournament at the Washburn Rural Invitational this weekend. 

“It was a good learning experience,” freshman Anvesha Sharda said. “We had never competed against other schools before so it was good to see everyone has a different debating style so that was also fun to see.”

The Varsity team, made up of junior Sam DeLong and sophomore Annabelle Jung, ended with a 3-3 record. DeLong was “a bit disappointed” due to not making it to the elimination rounds.

“It gave me a lot of material to… start learning through, going through and preparing for the rest of the season,” Jung said.

This year has proven difficult due to COVID-19. The students are used to being able to see the reaction of the judge to effect their arguments. Students now do not have that, limiting their personalities and how they interact with the judge.

“You can modify what your arguments are, how fast you’re going, what you’re saying, how you’re saying it based on what the judge is like communicating to you based on body language or facial expressions and you don’t have that when it’s online,” DeLong said. 

Along with the struggle of changing from in person debating to online, some students faced technical difficulties due to the online format. Sharda’s account had some issues from originally denying entry to saying the session had ended.

“I ended up competing under Connor’s name,” Sharda said. “So we were both Connor Buchanan.”

The technical difficulties didn’t get in the way of Sharda and freshman Connor Buchanan winning the Novice division. Buchanan was recognized as the sixth best individual competitor while Sharda was recognized as the seventh best overall competitor.

“Really proud of this bunch,” head coach Mac Phrommany said. “Getting out in the early season is always tough, to say the least. There’s a lot of unknowns to handle and to grapple with and everyone handled it quite well.”

Debate will meet this upcoming weekend at the Mid-America Cup in Des Moines, Iowa.