St. Vincent debate team among best in the nation

It is a perfect storm of excellence for a St. Vincent High School debate duo that is on its way to school history and national prominence.|

It is a perfect storm of excellence for a St. Vincent High School debate duo that is on its way to school history and national prominence.

A dedicated and veteran teacher/coach has meshed with a school administration that most honors and supports its debate program. Most importantly, St. Vincent is blessed with two innately talented debaters who have been willing to work to become even better.

The results have been startling.

The team of Julia Hunter and Adam Martin have already qualified for the Tournament of Champions, high school debate’s national championships, and achieved national ranking in the process.

As St. Vincent coach Tom Woodhead explains, it takes two bids in National Circuit events to qualify for the TOC. A bid is awarded for a tournament win or for a strong showing in an exceptionally competitive tournament. He notes that getting two bids can be exceptionally difficult. Hunter and Martin have eight.

Woodhead has been teaching and coaching debate for 10 years, the last three at St. Vincent, where he first worked with SV speech and debate program founder Lila McClay before taking over when McClay left the school last year.

In a debate tournament, competition is between two-person teams On the National Circuit, the topic is the same in every competition. This year’s topic is “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance.”

Woodhead explains that long before the team’ begin talking not only to outwit the opponents, but also to impress the astute judges, there is much preparation. “It is a research-based competition,” he says. “There is a huge amount of evidence that has to be learned to prepare to debate both sides.”

He note that before the advent of tablets, teams might lug as many as five file cabinets of research to a competition.

The coach said both Hunter and Martin have natural talent for the competition, but that doesn’t entirely explain their national-level success.

Both got an early start in their debating careers.

Martin’s bother debated for St. Vincent, and has been working with his brother from an early age. “It was like having a private tutor,” Woodhead says. Hunter began debating in junior high school and has been devoted to the competition ever since.

“They gook advantage of their head start and have never stopped working hard,” the coach explains.

Of course, being prepared is only part of the story. The competitors still have to know how, and be ready to implement, their knowledge. “It is like pieces of chess. You still have to know how to move them around, how to organize your arguments and respond to your opponent’s arguments,” Woodhead says.

Hunter and Martin are exceptional, but St. Vincent has several strong debaters who take advantage of the culture created by the school’s support for the program. This year there are 25 students in the program and many are serious enough to attend debate camps during the summer when they spend three to seven weeks in total debate immersion.

The dedicated coach and school administration foster that dedication.

“I came to St. Vincent because of the debate program,” Woodhead notes. “Debate is an important program at St. Vincent, and we have an incredibly supportive principal.

“There is no reason we can’t have sustained success here at St. Vincent. It just depends on the students and their commitment.”

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