In a packed country club there are campaign buttons being sold, silent auctions being betted on, and most importantly, politics being debated. Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jill Stein, and Gary Johnson square off in a debate in Springdale, Arkansas. For senior Jake Lance, this is the national stage, and he is  Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

“Politics wise, we do have to freshen up. For example, I’m Gary Johnson at the debate and I have no idea about Gary Johnson. So I have to freshen up and look into his policies and everything he wants to do,” Lance said.

This year is different than  past years because there is an election, and they are debating as candidates, not as parties. Coach Brown, the debate coach, decided who would portray whom, and senior Anna Cook received Donald Trump because she is a strong Republican.

“Coach Brown picked for us, and with me, she kept my politics in mind. With Caroline Eastep, she is a Republican, but she is going to be portraying Hillary Clinton. They kept our personalities in mind and who could handle which thing,” Cook said.

Cook believes that it will be  a learning experience for the students involved but also the parents and other adults who come out to watch. She believes that adults have a stigma that teens don’t care about politics and don’t know anything about them, so this debate will change that thought.

“I think  it will be really educational for all of us participating as students, but I think more importantly it’s more for the other side. It is for all the people who will get to see us and see what we do, but also to see that students really are involved,” Cook said.

Although he was supposed to be a speaker at the debate, junior Pablo Manon was unable to take on that role because of band, and as a result, he  switched to a behind the scenes role.

“This year I will actually just be helping set up since I am in band and our state competition lies on the same day. I will be helping the coach  set up, plan things out, and sell tickets. We meet every Tuesday  to start prepping,” Manon said.

This debate is one of the biggest fundraisers for the  debate program, one that will hopefully help them get to where they want to be. Lance explains that the mock debate will help them go to many tournaments to hopefully prepare them for nationals.

“This is really big for us because we have a lot of plans. In December we are going to New Orleans for a national qualifier, and there are other tournaments we may go to. If we make it to nationals for mock trial, then we have to have this money because debate is expensive,” Lance said.