Debate Team Update

The Elkhorn North debate team will begin competition soon as tournaments start in November

The Elkhorn North debate team, led by English teacher Laura Anderson, is gearing up for competition season. Debate tournaments will begin in November and are, essentially, every Saturday through February and into March when State Debate is held. 

It’s a club that does exactly what the name eludes to: debate. Club members are great public speakers who also have a passion for voicing their opinions on current events. 

The team prepares for certain topics and then participates in tournaments with debate competitors from other schools. 

“As far as the debate topics go, they are actually nationally picked,” Anderson said. “The idea is to keep it set so that somebody from Nebraska could debate somebody from New York.”

There are four different formats that are utilized at a debate competition. The first one is policy which is very long and evidence-driven. Public forum, the second one, is based more on current events. Lincoln-Douglas takes more of a philosophical approach and tends to be more controversial. Finally, student congress is a debate format where students create bills and resolutions to debate.

The process to prepare for each debate certainly takes a lot of hard work. Competitors spend a lot of time researching and formulating their arguments.

“They write their own cases and then practice debating each other,” Anderson said. “Then, we work on ultimately tearing cases apart.” The debate team members work on finding flaws and trying to erase them in order to fine tune their arguments.

The Elkhorn North debaters are excited for the upcoming season and will be busy throughout the winter months with their competition schedule.