Junior Hayley Reynolds sits with her team, anxiously preparing for her next debate. She only has 30 minutes to come up with points on the topic of “fight is better than flight.”  She nervously walks into the next room to debate against her opponent.

“You have 30 minutes to prep, and then you go find your opponent in the room you’re assigned to. It’s a little stressful only having 30 minutes to prepare a debate,” Reynolds said

Everyone in debate stayed after school Sept. 14 to do a team builder. They paired up in groups and did a scavenger hunt around the school. Some of the activities they had to do for the scavenger hunt included wrapping someone up in toilet paper like a mummy and finding certain objects around the school. Debate is spread across four class periods, which challenges team unity.  By doing this team builder, debate coach Joel Brown hoped to bring people from each class period together.  He also hoped to integrate all the new sophomores in with the more experienced juniors and seniors.

“I believe the team builder helped us tremendously, and it helped us become one big family,” sophomore debate student CJ Parish said.

One upcoming project in debate is Student Congress. This requires the students to debate hypothetical bills. Students act like members of Congress, debating the bills and resolutions to the bills. This is also a good way to get new debate students comfortable with speaking and debating. Some students are learning how to set up an IP debate, a formal style of debating. Another project is basic tournament prep- learning and improving skills needed to succeed at tournaments.

“We’re competing in tournaments and working on tournament prep,” Mr. Brown said.

So far, the debate team has done very well at their tournaments. At UCA, they placed third overall, but placed first and second in two divisions, debate in Lincoln Douglas and International Public Debate Association. They also placed first overall when they went to Monticello. With all the work Mr. Brown and the students are putting in, Har-Ber should have a great debate season this year. Students are off to a great start with team building and placing well in tournaments.

“I hope to see national title out of this year, that’s what I want to see,” Brown said.

The students in debate have high hopes for this year. They are all working their hardest and expect great things to come from it.

“We have a great group of people in this program. We have all sorts of very talented people, and it can be expected for us to bring back lots of trophies,” Parish said