On Sunday February 17th, Choate participated in an extemporaneous debate at St. Sebastian’s in which it competed against 12 other New England preparatory schools in a clash of reason and style.
Eight Choate students went to the debate, four were novice debaters and four were varsity debaters. Two students at the same level were paired up in teams. Each of these teams faced another team of the same level from another school three times over the course of the debate. The debaters would get a seemingly random, hopefully unexpected, topic, pick sides, and with 15 minutes to prepare, present cases to sway the judge into voting for their side of the resolution. It was a contest of quick-thinking and smooth talking. The debaters had to come up with good points in favor of their side, rebut points made by the opposing team, and present their ideas with clarity, organization and often wit.
Choate won the debate at St. Sebastian’s. The Choate debate team won 10 out of the 12 rounds they faced, beating the perennial favorite Hotchkiss, which won for the past two years, Deerfield, Exeter, Hopkins, Roxbury Latin and many others. Of the two rounds that were lost, one was lost by one point, which could have changed at the whim of the judge, and the other was lost to one of the top teams in the debate. Debate team captain Aditya Rajagopalan ’09 said, “A record such as 10 out of 12 is a truly remarkable achievement, certainly one that is very rare in debate.” He went on to say that he was both “surprised and very pleased by the victory.” As a result of its performance, Choate received a large, beautiful bowl. Choate novice debater Ian Chan ’10 also won an individual award for scoring 3rd overall amongst the 52 novices who participated. Ian said that when he heard that he won the award, “it took me more than a whole second to grasp the thought that I actually received a personal reward.”
This victory comes in the wake of another excellent performance by Choate debaters. On Sunday February 10th, some members of the Choate debate team attended a public speaking contest in Kingswood-Oxford. In that contest, Choate debater Shubhro Saha ’11 won first place in the Varsity After Dinner and Storytelling competitions and Hannah Nyhart ’11 won first place for novices overall. When he received his award, Shubhro said, “Dang, that’s got to stink for the upper classmen,” referring to the many upperclassmen he defeated in his first place finishes in two of the three competitions.
These recent wins in both the varsity and novice categories by the Choate debate team show an overall strength that the other preparatory school debate teams will find hard to beat. Rajagopalan ’09 said, “I’m truly excited for the future of the Choate Debate Team—our performance at St. Sebastian’s showed that we not only are strong at our upper echelons, but also have incredible depth at the novice level.” Debate team coach Neil Shimmield said of the victory, “I am very proud, and very optimistic for the future of the debate team.”
