King’s Debate Society Returns from Season Opener

Last week, the King’s Debate Society participated in the first competition of the year at the annual Brad Smith Debate Tournament hosted by the University of Rochester, September 17-18. Eighteen students were in attendance, including eleven novice debate students.

They debated topics including reparations for Native Americans, drinking on college campuses, funding for the Paralympics, the role of Syria in the fight against ISIS, and whether police should have access to GPS data from Pokemon Go players.

Audrey Cooper (’18) and Grayson Logue (’18) advanced to quarterfinals as the 8th ranked team after preliminary rounds (out of 60 teams). Grayson Logue also received the 8th place overall speaker award.

Additionally, the three novice teams from KDS held their own against other schools which brought more than twice as many novice teams to the tournament. Kathryn Caswell (‘20) and MaryKathryn Samelson (‘20) were ranked as the second novice team after preliminary rounds and advanced to the novice final round, where they were joined by the team of Bernadette Berdychowski (‘20) and Eddie VanZandt (‘20). These two teams earned their finalist trophies by arguing whether it was appropriate for athletes to engage in political protest on the field.

“Debating at the Brad Smith tournament was an eye opening experience,” Caswell said. “I was very excited to engage with such a diverse group of students and institutions about some of the most pressing issues in the news today.”

Kaitlyn Hasegawa (‘19) and Kyle Kendrick (‘19), one of the teams which represented King’s at the national championship last spring, placed 20th overall, just one point short of advancing to the quarterfinal. Debaters Alex Bravo (‘20), Aaron Cho (‘20), Trivette Knowles (‘18), Lauren Marchand (‘18), Onassis Puente (‘19), and Caroline Walker (‘19) also competed and all took the win in at least one of their rounds, completing the competitive success of KDS at the tournament.

Coach Josiah Peterson, alumni Rachelle Peterson, Meric Pope (‘20), Abigail Smith (‘20), Henry Thomas (‘19), and alumni Jeremy Cerone also served as judges.

“I was delighted and honored when Josiah invited me to return and help our Society as a guest judge for the Rochester tournament,” said Jeremy Cerone. Cerone graduated from King’s in 2013, after serving as the Vice President and Research Coordinator of KDS. “The King’s Debate Society was both one of the most personally meaningful and one of the most practically useful facets of my education at The King’s College, and I love giving back to my debate family. I was tremendously pleased to find such a large and impressive contingent of brilliant and engaging current debate students. Most importantly, the vision established by the early leadership, including myself, of finding and effectively advocating truth in the marketplace of ideas, remains the foundation of our Society.”

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Next weekend, the King’s Debate Society is headed to the Hobart and William Smith (HWS) tournament in Geneva, NY (Sep 30-Oct 2), followed by Hart House at the University of Toronto (Oct 14-16).

The King’s Debate Society exists to train students to effectively advocate truth in the marketplace of ideas. Please contact debate@tkc.edu with any questions or for more information about the society.