By J1 Reporter Lucy Kalkowski

On Saturday, Oct. 28 Marian hosted the Nebraska Debate Conference before the debate season began. Marian had the responsibility of setting up the important event meant to cultivate the skills of new and experienced debaters alike. 

In order to prepare for the conference, volunteers had to arrive on Saturday early in the morning. “I had to be at Marian around…7:30,” sophomore Reilly O’Brien, a varsity debater, said. “I helped my friend Alena make a sign to show where we had waffles for all the people coming in. I helped put papers on each of the quad tables to help them know what room to go to.” 

The conference attracted many debaters; it included guest speakers and gave teams a chance to get a jump start on the season. “The importance of holding a Nebraska Debate Conference is probably that it’s so helpful…to find things out. If I hadn’t gone to that conference, I wouldn’t have been half as much prepared as I was at Lincoln Southwest.” O’Brien said The Lincoln Southwest tournament is the opening tournament of the year for debaters, and this year it was on November 4th. With weeks ahead of time to prepare, it is the largest and one of the most difficult tournaments of the year. 

“It really helps people get to know the community, especially novice when it is their first year and learn more about their events,” O’Brien said. Novice is a term used by debaters to describe someone who is in their first year of debate. Debate takes a lot of work and time in order to excel, making such conferences important for first-time debaters. 

Hosting the conference was also an opportunity for the Debate Team to raise money. “It helps us with tournament and judging fees which is really important so that we keep competing every weekend,” O’Brien said. Marian’s Debate Team is steadily growing, meaning that the costs to send debaters to tournaments are also rising.

“It is super important for our team, especially considering our team’s size now,” junior Liz Nguyen said. “Our team is growing, it’s almost 30 people now. So having a fundraiser at Marian and for the debate team is so important,” Nyugen said. Each person sent to a tournament costs roughly $50, and the entry fees for the first tournament of the season was $1,200.

In order to run concessions such as the waffles for breakfast at the conference, the Debate Team asked for parent volunteers. “If we didn’t have these parent volunteers, a lot of the things that happened at our debate conference wouldn’t have been possible. So having parent help is important to keep things running for our debate team,” Nyugen said. Parents did many tasks such as helping set up, make pancakes and waffles, serve lunch, and bring supplies to be able to run the concessions. 

The conference was not exclusively fundraising either. Marian had some of its debaters participate in the actual conference besides volunteering. One of its biggest events the conference had, was its guest speaker J. Scott Wunn, director of the National Speech and Debate Association. “I found it to be quite inspiring and it was really nice to see how the speech and debate community has grown throughout the years,” Nguyen said.

Thanks to the informative and inspiring speakers who presented at the conference and the hardworking parent volunteers, Marian debaters and those from other schools had the opportunity to learn and grow. “I thought it was an amazing opportunity for debate students across the state. I think overall it was really successful and a lot of people got amazing skills out of it,” Nguyen said. 

Debate is not just an extracurricular activity for students, it brings important life skills to all those involved. “It helps you with public speaking and all kinds of random skills like AP testing because you have to think on your feet. I think it overall makes you a more confident person as a whole,” Nyugen said. With Marian hosting the Nebraska Conference, students all over Nebraska were able to grow and develop such skills. It is one of the many building blocks to success in debate and life.

Debate is a NSAA event often overshadowed by sports, but at Marian it is flourishing. With the ever expanding team, successes at tournaments are following in suit. At Lincoln Southwest, Marian as a team received 3rd place over co-ed schools with more debaters. Individually, many of them are ranking such as Elizabeth Nyugen who was first place in her congressional house at Lincoln Southwest.

All of these achievements are made possible not only by the debaters, but by the coaching staff as well. The head coach of debate at Marian is Ms. Halli Tripe, helped by her assistant coaches Fred Robertson and Addison Struggart. The debate team even made an appearance at the Winter Sports Pep Rally for the first time, taking a step enlightening students that debate isn’t a small gathering of people who like arguing. It is a full fledged team capable of competing in major competitions such as state and districts and even to send debaters to Nationals.