Macken Debate and Speech Team off to a roaring start to the debate season
This weekend, five students woke early and spent Friday and Saturday researching, arguing, and competing at the virtual Golden Gate Opener Tournament. San Francisco State University and the City College of San Francisco hosted the first tournament of the year for SMC’s Macken Debate and Speech Team. 21 colleges and universities from four different states competed in the tournament. The Macken Team competed in two types of debate, a two vs. two, new-topic-every-round Parliamentary Debate format and a one vs. one Lincoln-Douglas Debate format where the topic stays the same the whole year.
In Parliamentary Debate, novice and junior varsity teams competed together. Battling new and more experienced debaters, novices, and first-time debaters, Evan Silvernale ’25 and Logan Goldstein ‘25 took Bronze in their first tournament. They won three of their four preliminary rounds including one tough round where they debated against ending the senate filibuster. Silvernale and Goldstein stopped only when dropping 0-3 against the JV team from Missouri Valley College. Goldstein also earned 9th place JV Speaker.
Continuing SMC’s novice acclamations, first-time debater Demetri Papagoerge ’24 received 7th place JV Speaker and second semester novice Kathy Barajas ’24 grabbed 8th place JV Speaker. This pair jumped into debate rounds about reforming the Supreme Court, Medicare For All, and other current event topics. They ended their first debate tournament together with a respectable two wins and two losses.
In Lincoln-Douglas Debate, returning open (varsity) competitor Ojaswi Sharma ’22 started her tournament with a bang, picking up 7th place Open Speaker and winning her first round affirming the topic “The United States federal government should substantially curtail its counterterrorism operations in one or more of the following areas: statutory authorization for use of military force, air and/or drone strikes, combat and/or 127e programs.” The Lincoln-Douglas field combined the open and novice debaters together. Both Barajas and Papageorge fought hard, coming in 3rd and 4th speaker out of the novices.
The Macken Debate and Speech team is just getting started and still growing! Follow the team’s Instagram page for more updates and contact coach Andrea Brown (alb11@stmarys-ca.edu) if you or someone you know is interested in joining the team. Finally, the team would to send a special thank you to all the donors and supporters who made this competition possible.
Go Gaels!