Carson High Debaters advance to finals after third league tournament; volunteer judges sought
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Sat, 11/25/2023 - 5:00pm
Carson High debate wrapped up its third league tournament at Reed High School over the weekend. This tournament hosted 16 schools and 184 individual competitors.
The team continued its very successful season with students advancing into finals in both a wide range of speech and debate events.
Friday events focused on speech events. Ellie Demet and Kayden Kemp placed 5th and 4th respectively in humorous interpretation. Ellie performed Peabody and Sherman and Kayden’s piece was titled Spider Man at Hero Con. In Senior Humorous Interpretation Addison Hopkins claimed 1st place in senior humorous interpretation with his cutting of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Carson High also claimed half of the final round rank in Original Oratory. In this event students give an inspirational speech on a problem in society and present ways to solve it. Chelsea Empeno finished 6th with her piece on procrastination.
Vivi Castro placed 5th addressing the issue of mental health among US military veterans. Nasia Perkins finished in 2nd speaking on the impact of negative emotions and the power of saying ‘Hello’.
Carson also continued its dominance of the event Program Oral Interpretation.
Blending poetry, prose, literature, drama, and news articles together Makala Heyder placed 2nd in novice, with Summer McGill and Emily Tran taking 3rd and 1st in senior division.
examined the pressures of being the oldest child, Summer brought attention to the struggles of supporting family members with dementia, and Emily focused on discrimination against Asian Americans.
Kyle Allen finished 2nd overall in senior foreign extemporaneous. He spoke on topics including Terrorism in Uganda and gender equality in Chechnya.
Saturday’s debate events also saw a wide range of success. The majority of Carson competitors placed in the top ten in speaking points for their events. For each preliminary round judges assign speaking points for style, questioning, and analysis.
All six Carson competitors in Policy debate placed in the top 10. Max Gold finished 10th, Kaden Sa 9th, Nasia Perkins 7th, Jazzy Avila 5th, Summer McGill 3rd, and Vivi Mellow claimed 1st. Alexis Ropp climbed 3rd in novice Lincoln Douglas. In novice Public Forum Thomas Lance finished 9th , Makala Heyder 3rd, and Emily Tran took 1st. Senior Public Forum saw Kyle Allen finish 10th and partner Vivi Castro took 3rd.
Summer McGill and Nasia Perkins also finished 2nd overall in Policy debate with the topic: The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income.
Makala Heyder and Emily Tran took 1st place in novice Public Forum debate with the topic: The United States federal government should forgive all federal student loan debt. Makala and Emily had a perfect tournament winning every judge ballot in their competition. Makala, Emily, Summer, and Nasia each took three top 3 spots this weekend. Emily Tran earned the coveted Iron Fist team award, placed 1st in three different categories at one tournament.
The team is beginning to prep for our home tournament January 19-20. We are looking for 100 volunteers to help as judges at the tournament. No experience is necessary, judging is both informative and fun and volunteers will be well fed. Anyone interested can contact the head coach Patrick Mobley at: pmobley@carson.k12.nv.us
