Columbia Falls debaters beat school record

The Columbia Falls speech and debate team will rely on the strength of its juniors when it goes to the state tournament this weekend in Belgrade.

The team is hoping to win its 11th consecutive state title, overall it would the 18th Class A state title for the program. This season has been a challenge for the team because they lost eight seniors last year and have all new assistant coaches, said head coach Tara Norick.

The team to beat this season is Whitefish. Columbia Falls has won five tournaments, including divisionals, and lost four tournaments to Whitefish, and usually by a small margin, junior Colin Norick said. He is also captain of the debate team.

The students are pushing hard to win over Whitefish, yet their rival is really motivated to win this year because they have a team full of seniors.

“Competition makes both teams better in the end,” Norick said. “A lot of our kids will not try as hard if they are winning every tournament.”

It will be a close race at state and come down to something small such as sickness, family issues, a terrible bus ride, not enough sleep or crazy judges, Norick said. For example, one strong debater who is off his game at the tournament, could make the difference of 30 points between winning and losing for the team.

“More or less both sides are depending on, not only skill, but also a fair amount of luck,” Norick said.

The team is going into the final tournament with two debaters beating a school record. Since his freshmen year Norick and his policy debate partner Annabel Conger have won 110 debates as of last week. This beats the previous record of 108 debates set by his older brother, Brandon. Colin and Conger still have one more year to take the mark even higher.

The pair is also looking to beat a record of 51 debate victories in a season. They were 36-4 before divisionals, but still have a chance if they win the rest of the debates at state, plus two at the national qualifiers. Last year, the duo was close with 50 wins on the season.

Norick and Conger have to debate whether the U.S. federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance. They prepare an affirmative plan beforehand, but don’t know if they will have to argue for or against the resolution in each round. Thus they prepare for both sides by doing research and compiling evidence in a file box to use in the debate. Norick prefers the negative side.

“I think arguing against someone’s case is fun,” Norick said.

Conger said she’s feeling really confident about state.

“I think we will win,” she said. Then, she quickly knocked on a nearby wood door for good luck.

One of the captains of the speech team, junior Chloe Foster is competing in two speech events. For original oratory, she is arguing against people having blind faith, a topic inspired by the research she has learned to do on the speech and debate team. For memorized public address, she’ll present “Everyday Sexism,” a Laura Bates’ speech on sexual harassment, plus it’s memorized in a British accent. It’s a skill she acquired last year for an Emma Watson speech.

She is stressed because class finals are the same week as the state tournament, but is excited for the actual tournament.

Senior Emily Getts is presenting an expository speech at state. It’s 10 minutes of information about photography and cameras.

At the start of the season, she didn’t know what her speech would be about until she sat down to write it, the topic came easily because photography is her passion.

However, she isn’t focused on herself.

“We’re not about the individual,” Getts said. “We all want to win, so we can score the maximum for the team.”