On Saturday, October 11th, eight Groton students competed in an interscholastic debate hosted by St. Sebastian’s School.

This tournament was unique in that all of its participants were novices. Accordingly, our school’s debating society was represented by Second, Third, and Fourth Formers who were just beginning their debating careers. Despite their beginner status, Groton’s debaters fared well in Needham, holding their own against their competition.

The debate tournament at St. Sebastian’s was parliamentary style, requiring its participants to argue extemporaneously. About ten minutes before the start of each of three rounds, a coin was flipped to determine which team would choose either the topic of the debate or which side to defend. After the topic was finalized, debaters spoke impromptu in support of their sides.

“I was very nervous before the start of the tournament because if I had to argue a topic that I had no idea about, then I would be at a loss of words,” remarked Land Tantichot ’19, who participated in the debate.

Fortunately, no Groton debater experienced that issue. Groton sent to the Parliamentary debate tournament two teams of four, with each pair of debaters earning at least one win in its three rounds.

Faiz Malik ’19 and Land Tantichot ’19 were victorious in one debate, while Blair Donohue ’18 and Roselle Lovell-Smith ’18 came away with two wins. Alison Brown ’20 and Erin Dollard ’20, as well as An Nguyen ’18 and Nailah Pierce ’18, won all of the rounds in which they debated. All in all, Groton triumphed in nine of twelve total rounds.

Ironically, Groton’s debaters performed well perhaps because of their inexperience. Nailah, who was the top speaker (with 261 speaker points) on our team, said that despite feeling “terrified” initially, she had found the whole debate process “instinctual” and “just let [her speech] flow and did what came naturally.”

Despite the fact that it did not win any team distinctions, Groton’s debating society had a promising performance at St. Sebastian’s.

Madame Stanton, who accompanied our debaters, said, “We came out strengthened by our experience and ready for our next challenge!”