The Skyline High Speech and Debate team is kicking off the 2022-23 debate season this October with around 60 members. 

Debate and Speech have multiple events, which consist of lots of different styles of presenting and debating. Whether it’s debating alone, with a partner, or making a speech on a topic that someones really passionate about, debate has many options. The skyline debate team members are state champs all around. The debate team says, “We are the best club. Try to argue.” 

Overall Debate captain, Senior Trevor McMillan, gave a summary of debate as: 

“an extracurricular and class that’s focused on trying to prepare students for giving speeches and debating in eloquence and efficiency.” There both is a debate club and a class. 

In debate; depending on the event, debaters prepare for tournaments where they present their topic, speech, or plan from the event to judges. A Lot of debate members and captains have said that it helped them in many areas in school such as: English, logic, writing, research, and even social and presentation skills. Debate is also a good addition to a college resume. 

Members say that a common misconception is that it’s very difficult, so people tend to be intimidated. Most people are really nervous when they start out, and people switch around different events.  Members say once they found a suitable event they enjoy, they felt a lot more comfortable. The team members all feel that debate is more than just a club or team of people. Debate secretary, Sophomore Anhkhoa Le, said, “It’s more of a family because the community is kind of tight, but also accepts new people.” Captain of the Oratory Speech event, Senior Chioma Okoro also said “I felt safe in that class, I felt welcomed; just a great community”. Sophomore Mindy Phan, captain of Policy explained “Honestly my favorite thing about speech and debate is like the community; the community you find in debate is a lot like a family.”

There are different types of debate and speech. Debate and speech have multiple events, there’s Policy, Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, and Congress, Oratory, Impromptu, Informative and Extemporaneos. The speech and debate team are always open to new members. Debate had been around for almost 60 years at skyline. Phan noted, “It’s never too late to try out debate; our debate team is growing each year, when we came, it was a lot smaller. There were points in skyline history where the debate team was absolutely thriving and it diminished.”