Debaters head to Catholic Nationals
Written by Sarah Ross, Former Student on Friday, May 25, 2012
The SHS Debate team hopes to bring home a win from this year’s Catholic National Debate tournament.
This weekend in Baltimore Maryland, senior Shannon Harris; and juniors Katelin Harris, Shannon Carroll, Anna Pisac, and Max Zinkand will be competing. As well as an exciting trip with their team, these SHS students will be competing and mingling with debaters from several different schools.
The team has been preparing for this tournament from the very start of the debate season. It is and extreme privilege for any student debater to attend. SHS’s debate coach Bill Nicolay expressed the sheer level of commitment involved in preparing for this tournament. “I coach these students for hours, and that does not even include the work time that they have to spend on their own,” stated Nicolay.
The tournament is especially important for senior Shannon Harris. Harris has played an active role in debate since her freshman year, and has developed a strong relationship with her teammates. Although Harris is enthusiastic about attending college next year, she knows her last tournament will be a bittersweet farewell. “Debate has been a major role in my life since freshman year, so it will be sad to leave, but at the same time I am so excited that there are so many junior debaters; it is their time to shine.”stated Harris.
As to who will do the best this weekend Nicolay explained, “Any one of them has the potential to make it past the elimination round.”
Although all the debaters hope for this outcome, most of them are rooting for Harris and her event partner Piasac, “They work extremely hard, and have a certain unexplainably effect of their audience,” explained Zinkand.
The tournament runs through this Monday.
