Novice Teams From King’s Debate Compete at HWS tournament

Novice debaters Bernadette Berdychowski (‘20), Iain Coston (‘19), Haley Davidson (‘20), Annabelle Ford (‘20), Lauren Marchand (‘18),and Abel Tirado (‘20) represented the King’s Debate Society this weekend at the Hobart and William Smith tournament in Geneva, NY. They were also accompanied by KDS president Audrey Cooper (‘18) and Coach Josiah Peterson, who served as judges. Debate topics ranged from whether financial aid programs should be exclusively need-based, to whether the sexualization of men advances the feminist movement.

All of the KDS debaters at this tournament joined the King’s community in August, and so for most, this tournament was their first collegiate debate experience. (Bernadette Berdychowski and Lauren Marchand also competed at the Season Opener tournament in September.)

For Abel Tirado, a former high school debater, experiencing a new type of competition was the highlight of the weekend. “What surprised me was the formatting of the debate,” he said. “It challenged me to expand my mentality outside of a simple policy or fact format, and to consider things both principally and practically. I was challenged to be flexible in my style and adapt to the round itself.”

More than 40 institutions, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Yale, and universities from Canada and Nigeria, brought more than 125 teams to the debates. “This weekend I was pleasantly surprised by the culture of collegiate debate,” Annabelle Ford said. “I wrongfully expected that the debaters from prestigious institutions would look down on me as a novice. Instead, the judges and other teams were incredibly kind and eager to teach me how to become a better thinker and debater.”

Ford’s partner, Haley Davidson, echoed her sentiment: “While of course there were a few hyper-competitive folks, most were excited to get to know us and had this wonderful teaching spirit. After performing terribly in a round about Pakistan, my partner and I learned a lot from talking with an upperclassman we debated against from Bates College who did very well in the round.”

In her very first debate, Davidson was judged by the author of a book on argumentation that she was reading for class, and received personal feedback from him afterwards on her speech. The team went on to win their third round arguing in favor of allowing third-party financiers to fund tortious litigation (such as in the case of the Peter Thiel-funded lawsuit against Gawker).

Davidson continued, “I also learned that sometimes you fail and have no idea what a round is about, but you can still do your best and put together a speech worth listening to. And then, you go home and know exactly what kind of issues to be up to date on for next time!”

Every team won at least one of their debates, and by the last round, the team of Davidson and Ford, as well as Coston and Marchand, were in contention to advance to the novice final. Coston and Marchand finished the tournament as the 7th-ranked novice team, after winning their debates about sanctioning Pakistan and the value of reading old books.

“I learned a lot about what I don’t know,” Coston said, “It was amazing to see hundreds of young people together in the common goal of communication and knowledge.”

The King’s Debate Society will be competing next at the University of Toronto, Hart House I.V. (Oct 14-16) , and the Huber Debates at the University of Vermont (Oct 29-30).

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.