At Mayo High School, debate is cool
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| Olmsted County District Court Judge Kevin Lund conducts one of two weekly meetings Wednesday with the Mayo High School debate team, which has grown to approximately 70 participants. The team will compete at state in the Twin Cities this weekend. |
At Mayo High School, debate is cool
Posted: Wednesday, December 10, 2014 9:44 am | Updated: 10:59 am, Wed Dec 10, 2014.
Matthew Stolle, mstolle@postbulletin.com
Over the years, the Mayo High School debate team has become so popular that even its coach, Kevin Lund, struggles to explain it.
But this year was the first that Lund found himself coaching a debate team of 72 students, his largest yet. It was a team so large that when Mayo sent a contingent to the state tournament last weekend, not everyone was able to go. The bus wasn't big enough. A dozen years ago, his first year as a coach, there had been only 12 students.
Why is debate so popular? For Mayo students like Anna Kirkland, who joined the team this fall, it's the competition that drives her — and the knowledge that she's getting better. The Mayo freshman will never forget the first time she entered a debate room with her partner, Erin O'Hara, and two opponents, with one judge presiding. She found herself hooked.
"Walking into that room for the first time is the weirdest feeling you'll ever get," Kirkland said.
For that and other reasons, Mayo's debate team has become such a magnet it now rivals many of the school's biggest varsity sports programs in popularity.
It hasn't hurt that it has a coach who knows a thing or two about debate and has provided program continuity over the years. Lund is an Olmsted County District Court judge, and before that, he was a practicing attorney and Rochester School board member.
Lund graduated from Mayo but was never on the debate team. Yet, his years as a coach have given him an appreciation for what debate demands of students, who must show an ability to research, write, speak and, most importantly, listen to a subject.
"You have to be prepared to argue, very intelligently, both sides of an issue," he said.
A major commitment
Debate also asks no small commitment from students. The season takes place in the fall (It just wrapped up last weekend with the state tournament). Practices are held on Wednesday night. Tournaments and competition take place every other Saturday. Students board the buses at 6:15 a.m. and usually don't return until 5 p.m.
"These young people are sacrificing an entire Saturday to engage in an activity that most people find a little terrifying," Lund said.
Classic debate is an exercise in point-counterpoint, verbal thrust and parry. It's a format wrapped in a structure of argument, rebuttal and cross-examination. It's a test, students say, of thinking on your feet, of having the mental nimbleness to rebuild an argument after your opponent has attempted to demolish it.
And woe to the person who enters a debate forum unprepared. In the rebuttal phase, a student has to speak for seven minutes, attacking the opponent's argument and then "rebuilding their case" after an opponent has attacked it. Seven minutes, students say, can seem like an eternity, if a student is not armed with facts and arguments
The focus is on arguments, coolly reasoned and dispassionately delivered. The topics themselves are rooted in current events. Unlike today's political talk shows, which thrive on anger and outrage, students get style points for infusing their arguments with precision.
Many students compare it to athletics but with one major difference. In an athletic competition, players always know the score by looking at the scoreboard. But in classic debate, there is no scoreboard, and the outcome rests with the judge or judges.
"It's kind of stressful going in, since you don't know if you won a debate or not until the end of the day," Kirkland said.
At the state tournament at South St. Paul High School last weekend, the topic was "Resolved: The Obama administration's efforts have improved global security against terrorism." Try arguing that one at the next family gathering.
No white socks
Most Wednesday nights, students practice by engaging in mock debates in classrooms or conduct research in computer rooms. Lund goes from room to room to monitor their progress. Last Wednesday was different, however. With the weekend tournament looming, Lund and Mayo students gathered in the school cafeteria for one last prep session.
A Mayo student, Travis Turner, led the discussion, going over debate points that should win favor with judges.
Lund offered pointers on everything from the substantive to the cosmetic. His suggestions ranged from what to do if you have one of those deer-in-the-headlights moments to how not to freak out when your opponents look like a pair of recent MIT graduates. And dress smartly. No white socks. Lund even brings an extra pair of dress socks to debate tournaments just in case one of his students forgets.
"And be prepared," said Mayo 11th-grader Eric Mallman. "It allows you to perform better."
For most students, the debate draw is the opportunity to develop skills that can be applied elsewhere. Students say debate is a way of learning about current events, to practice and get better at public speaking, of learning how to argue persuasively. It's not uncommon for students to use the words "fun" and "nerve-wracking" in the same breath to describe debate.
Team is student-led
Lund attributes the team's large growth to the fact that the team has become student-led. As as one group of students rise through the ranks, they in turn become the coaches for the younger students. Students who have graduated from Mayo have pointed to their experiences in debate as making a difference in their college and professional careers. Turner says word of mouth fueled its growth.
"I really don't think that many people knew about it," Turner said. "But then they heard about what we do in debates. They heard about the practices, the meets. I think we're one of the biggest teams in the state."
Debate also has proven infectious to the coach. Lund said once that he would stop coaching debate several years ago, after his last son, who was on the debate team, graduated from high school. But six years later, Lund has yet to pull himself away.
"I look at these young kids who come in as ninth graders, and I say to myself, 'Gosh, I can't wait to see what that young person looks like as a senior,'" Lund said. "The intellectual transformation, the social transformation is just phenomenal."
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