New Trier Debate Tournament
By: Daniel Counihan’13
1-5. That was the record at my first ever debate tournament, 1-5. I am a first year debater at the New Trier National Tournament. Now you’re probably wondering why a novice is attending a national tournament. My answer, I have been working on debate since the beginning of the school year and was planning my first tournament to be at the John Carroll University tournament. But I went to room 512 after school as usual for my daily lecture to learn enough varsity theory to attend John Carroll. As I walked into the room Cameron Colella, a third year junior debater, who attended the University of Michigan debate camp, asks if I can attend New Trier since they needed a forth person and didn’t have anyone else ready. I said I sure and that was that. They told me I would be debating with Ben Griffin a third year senior debater. Over the next few weeks Cameron taught me theory and Jon Dokler, also a senior, wrote updates along with Ben. I learned as much as I could as fast as I could.
The Thursday of departure came and we left school after 5th period walking to the RTA. New Trier is a High School northeast of in Winnetka, Illinois. That night we wrote updates (I just highlighted them) to prepare for tomorrow’s first four of seven preliminary rounds of debate. The first round I was nervous knowing what I had to do but not knowing if I could. The round started at 11 am and Ben and I expectedly got \”schooled”
