What was once an insecurity for incoming La Cañada High School senior Cameron Hong has now paid off for her speech and debate team.
After rigorous competition, the team of five representing different high schools became national champions in the World Schools Debate category of the National Speech and Debate Tournament held in Phoenix, Arizona.
The students from Harvard-Westlake School, Burbank High School, Fullerton Union High School and Westlake High School have broken records at this year’s tournament, which lasted four days. The team was one of two schools representing the Los Angeles area.
Though they passed through the six preliminary rounds with ease and moved on to the six elimination rounds with confidence, the group remained humble.
“As we advanced to the next elimination round, every time we just felt so incredibly lucky to have the opportunity, and also just lucky to have each other and to experience it,” said Hong. “It was really an incredibly bonding experience.”
Out of a tournament panel of 36 judges, the team received 33 votes in favor of their positions, which is rare to see.
“Across all speech and debate events, that is the highest percentage of judge ballots a team has gotten, or an individual has gotten,” said Hong.
Coach Brandon Batham from Burbank High School mentored the team through the tournament and competed with another team that also won last year. He was surprised to see this year’s team win as well.
“Since 2015, we had the lowest ballot drop total in the events history,” said Batham. “Last year in 2022, the final round decision was 10 to 3, and at the time, that was the highest ballot pickup in a final round in the events history. This year, our final round performance was a 12 to 1 decision, which is virtually unheard of.”
While preparing for June’s tournament, Batham wanted to make sure the students understood the format of the tournament.
“I was most interested in making sure that the students understood this debate format, [which is] relatively new within the national circuit,” said Batham.
The students for this tournament are judged based on their style, presentation, content and strategy.
The five students debated in front of crowds of hundreds of people and competed against 183 teams that were from around the world, like Canada, China, Ghana, Singapore, Mexico and Taiwan.
In the final round, the team was able to secure 12 out of the 13 judges’ votes to win. Most topics were given to the team an hour ahead of the round and they had to work together to come up with an approach. They couldn’t talk to Batham or use the internet.
“There was definitely a moment where I felt very confident,” said Batham. “Everything just started to come into place, it all just happened naturally.”
“I think the most challenging part of the tournament is developing a really great team dynamic, because we have to act under a lot of pressure and ensure that we have a lot of chemistry as we’re performing,” said Hong.
It was Hong’s first time competing in the tournament after joining speech and debate in her freshman year of high school.
“Honestly, I would say that I’m more of a timid and reserved person, at least at the start of high school, and through debate, especially the club at La Cañada, I’ve had the opportunity to develop my ability to speak and to take my stances on things and to be passionate about what I’m advocating for,” said Hong.
The five students, even from different areas and points in their lives, were able to work as a team for the tournament.
“We really wanted to put in the work and try our best to qualify, and it ended up working out,” said Hong. “So, I’m very grateful for that.”
Hong said she felt lucky to experience going against a variety of teams and opinions for the topics they had.
“I would say that was the most interesting part of the tournament, was having all kinds of different topics brought up, and seeing the [perspective that each student brought to the table],” said Hong.
To prepare, the team had a few months before the tournament to practice topics provided to them. They researched and wrote their cases. Topics in the tournament ranged from artificial intelligence, the rise of nihilism in pop culture and people’s democratic right to secede, to name a few.
Overall, Hong is grateful for the experience.
“I feel like it was honestly the most transformative thing that I experienced during my high school career,” said Hong.
Hong plans on continuing debate while she enters her senior year at LCHS, and when she starts looking for colleges to go to, debate is a priority.
“I am very interested in continuing debate,” said Hong. “My number one criterion is whether or not [the school has] a debate team that I would want to work with.”
First published in the August 10 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
