By Madison Mondell
Staff Writer
Despite having never competed before, Bryan’s freshmen debate team gave their opponents bad luck at a recent tournament.
Two freshman teams in the Bryan Forensics Club competed on Friday, October 13, at Walter State Community College in Morristown, Tenn. and walked away with high placements.
One of the teams, comprised of Cameron Brock and Andrew Johnson, qualified for semi-finals. Daniel Cadiz, in the other freshman team with Sophomore Timothy Metcalf, received a 3rd place overall speaker award.
Neither Brock nor Johnson had ever participated in parliamentary debate before and this was the first time that both teams had competed, let alone made it past preliminary rounds.
This was a novice tournament hosted by Walter State to allow new members of forensics clubs to get their feet wet and providing a starting point for new debaters.
“I was pretty nervous. I had never done it before. I was not very sure that I would do well at all, but as I went through I got the hang of it a little bit more. I stopped shaking as much. The whole ‘they’re-not-pointing-a-gun-at-you’ thing kind of helped.” said Johnson, an international student from Brazil and English major.
Both freshmen had never debated before, not knowing what to expect but broke to semi-finals out of 20 teams.
“I’ve always been interested in debate. I’ve always liked the skills that are attached to debate. I like using rationality to be able to discuss current events and topics in the world that effect society,” said Brock, freshman and History Major.
Both teams at the end of the tournament were exhausted but in good spirits.
It was kind of a, ‘we came, we conquered, now let’s go get some sleep’” said Brock.