On September 28, Irvington Debate participated in the first Congress and Parliamentary debate tournament of the school season—Parli 1. The tournament was located in Orinda and was hosted by Miramonte High School, starting at 8:00 AM. The tournament had over 400 entries across all events, with Irvington’s 19 teams competing in the Novice and Varsity Parliamentary divisions.
As this was the first Parliament tournament of the season, Irvington’s team worked hard and put in lots of effort to make sure that their first tournament would pay off
Irvington was able to continue their success in the Novice division, coming home with eight speaker awards. Akshay Hariharan (11), the Novice captain, said, “ I think the novices did really well, and a lot of teams from Irvington went 4-0.”
Being the first tournament for many novices, some were unfamiliar with how scoring and results differed based on the judges they received. President Kireeti Jagannati (12) explained, “I think helping our competitors get adjusted to parent judges earlier on would have provided even better results, but debate is an activity that you can only get better with as you do it more.”
Kanak Gupta (10), an open member, expressed a similar sentiment about the parent judges. She felt that “a downside of this tournament is that the judges are new, and because of that, most of them weren’t experienced judging debates.” However, Gupta (10), along with her teammates did not let this bother them, and despite the inexperienced judges, they were still able to enjoy the tournament.
Overall, while the tournament did go smoothly for Irvington, Vice President Anika Mangla (11) said that there were several logistical problems, which she felt stemmed from the fact that Irvington’s team does not have a paid coach.
“We started planning the logistics for this tournament 2 weeks before it was to occur to get everything done in time, however, 3 days before the tournament, all of our entries were dropped,” said Mangla (11). “In general, we don’t receive the same courtesy as teams with paid coaches do, and that discrepancy was reflected by the way the league communicates with us.”
However, she did not let this hinder her and made sure that the paperwork and all the tournament-related logistics were worked out to the best of her ability.
Irvington’s success at the tournament without a coach showcases the team’s strength, and their motivation to succeed.
The captains did a good job preparing the debaters for the tournament, Jagannati sharing, “Our Novice captains have been doing an incredible job teaching them, and with their guidance, they’ll reach new heights.” She expects that the trend of Irvington novices consistently closing out tournaments will continue, and is excited about this year’s cohort of freshmen.
The tournament was a success for Irvington’s teams, with 3 teams in the Varsity division winning three out of their four debates. In the novice division, four out of the top five teams were from Irvington, with three of them closing out, meaning they championed the tournament.
Irvington Debate expects to uphold their success at the I-W Invitational, which will be co-hosted with Washington High School from October 25 to 26.
