Juan Diego policy debate team named No. 1 in state

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DRAPER — The Juan Diego policy debate team was named No. 1 in the state at the 2013 Utah Debate Coaches Association Speech Arts Championship Nov. 8-9.

All of the Soaring Eagle winning debate pairs went undefeated in the competition. Rachel Carlson and Gabe Lewis placed first in Championship policy; Caitlin Walrath and Dylan Frederick were first in Varsity policy; and Lauren Andrews and Emily Luther placed first in JV policy.

Carlson and Frederick are seniors, Lewis and Walrath are juniors and Andrews and Luther are sophomores.

"Policy debate is often regarded as the most difficult form of debate, and is also where the most college scholarships for debate are awarded," said Moses Baca, Juan Diego debate and speech co-coach.

Last year, the Juan Diego Catholic High School debate team won its third straight title in the 3A State Tournament at Weber State University; the Soaring Eagle team also won the Region 10 debate title for the sixth year in a row.

In addition, the Juan Diego debate team recently hosted a debate competition at the school.

"It’s important that we give back to the debate community for as much as we benefit from it," said Baca. "There were over 400 students from 21 schools who participated."

Baca attributes the team’s success to a strong community.

"There are so many people working together for the benefit of our debate team and our students including coaches, parents, administrators, teachers and volunteers," said Baca.

Anthony Johnson, Juan Diego debate and speech co-coach, agreed. "The administration at Juan Diego is incredibly supportive of debate," he said. "They help us succeed in a way that I have really never seen before at a high school or collegiate level. Our parents hold fundraisers for the competitions, support the students at tournaments and allow their students to give time and effort to the team.

"Our students work incredibly hard," said Johnson. "They put four or five hours each day after school into researching a topic, giving practice speeches, watching film of some of the best debaters at the collegiate level, making sure they are competitively successful. It is often cited that the average policy debater does about the same amount of research as someone writing a master’s thesis; they must continually adapt new perspectives and strategies on a topic throughout the school year."

Everyone who competes is also a coach or a teacher in some way, said Baca.

"There are so many people on the team, it’s essential that they all work and practice together," Baca said. "There are students who compete almost every weekend and some who compete only once or twice. There are as many as 80 students who participate at some point on the team."

By rule, the state team can only have 25 students. "But what is nice, is debate comes in so many different varieties," said Baca. "One variety is policy debate, and these are our hardest working debaters."

The outcome of the debates have one thing in common, "they are all determined by a person who makes the decision," Baca said. "Because of that, it’s always an inherently subjective decision, so we go into each competition knowing that we could be judged on any number of things: the organization of our message, the general persuasiveness of our message, and how the students present themselves."

The debate team will defend its title at the state tournament in March.

"We have a lot of tournaments to go," said Johnson. "We will be defending our title at the state championship and fighting for our fourth consecutive title; we have won four out of the last five championships."