King’s Debate Society Post-Nationals

Three teams represented King’s at the United States University Debating Championships: Tim Perdew ’15 and John Sailer ’15, Jonah Ortiz ’17 and Lucy LeFever ’16, and Christian Tegge ’17 and Kyle Trivanovich ’17. The tournament was not just a test of rhetorical skill, but of endurance. Eight preliminary rounds preceded four elimination rounds over the course of three days.

Our debaters found themselves talking from nine in the morning until nine at night over a range of topics, including disbanding teachers’ unions, supporting private space exploration, encouraging the proliferation of free trade agreements, religious exemptions for small business owners, banning police ability to lie to suspects, and transferring all social welfare programs to private entities. 172 teams competed at the tournament, with close to 40 institutions represented, including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Morehouse, Clemson, Loyola-Marymount, and dozens of others.

Despite the challenge, the King’s teams fared well, beating prestigious universities from across the nation and world. Tegge and Trivanovich had their most successful tournament to date, scoring 10 points after 6 rounds and finishing one point shy of advancing to eliminations. LeFever and Ortiz, too, scored just one point short of eliminations.

Perdew and Sailer fared best at the tournament, advancing into elimination rounds with 16 points. In their octo-finals, they gave impassioned last speeches concerning whether parents have a moral obligation to adopt if they are able. In a highly contentious decision, our team lost. Though it was a tragedy for our debaters, it was still an admirable showing and the farthest a King’s team has gotten at the national championships.

Anchorage itself held other hidden gems. Each morning our teams were greeted by the sun rising over the magnificent mountain vistas on the city’s outskirts and watched as it set over the serene bay. The food was surprisingly fantastic with even the team’s self-attested food snob, Ortiz, admitting that a local pizzeria was the best pizza he had ever tasted (even better than anything New York could offer).

The competition was a wonderful bonding experience, with the team uniting over reindeer sausages, moose watching, and time spent in Anchorage’s tiny downtown center. Next year, USUDC will be held in Atlanta. The King’s Debate Society hopes to send even more teams to represent the school, maintain our status as the nation’s pre-eminent Christian debate program, and, as always, advocate for Truth.