Great Debaters of Harrison High Capture State Title

The powerhouse debate team at Harrison High School has been in top form leading up the NYSDCA tournament at Brooklyn Tech this weekend, and they kept up their winning ways by capturing a state championship on Saturday.

All three local debaters who qualified this weekend performed well, sophomore Peri Mendelsohn defeated two opponents in preliminary rounds and sophomore Sarah Murphy finished ninth in the state and was named third speaker.

But freshman Sarah Rossman stole the show, finishing with a 7 - 1 record and a state championship in the novice division.

The students have been practicing weekly since September and have ramped up to daily sessions leading up to the event, as they come up with different strategies for debate. Topics are never simple, and include subjects like whether juveniles who commit felonies should be tried as adults.

“The work ethic of these students is incredible,” said coach Chetan Hertzig. “I’ve seen them preparing for this event during their free periods and lunch periods, and then scheduling practices with each other after school. They haven’t stopped.”

More than 35 schools participated in this weekend's two-day tournament. Debaters qualified by finishing in the top 15 percent of at least one previous tournament.

The Harrison debate team has traveled to 15 tournaments throughout the state since the beginning of October. Hertzig says the topics are the same for two consecutive months, which demands that the students continually add depth to their arguments.

“They’ve learned a vast amount of material in just a few months,” said Hertzig. “Several of them have even begun using the material that is footnoted in some of their initial sources, so we’re seeing a much broader depth of arguments now.”

Freshman Danny Debois says the teams are broken up into individual pairs for the debates, making it critical to provide the right balance of knowledge between each person.

“It’s important to have diverse pairings that compliment each other,” said Debois. “You might have one person who’s good at making arguments while the other is good at rebuttals, or one person who’s stronger at research than the other.”

In addition to the debate skills that the team is learning, the students also say there are benefits that extend into the classroom.

“Debate is a much more structured form of writing, so writing essays is much easier for me now because I can state my arguments more clearly,” said junior Ally Brabant.

Of course, there are also some other perks that come with learning how to argue effectively.

“I’ve definitely gotten out of being in trouble with my parents on more than one occasion,” said Brabant, laughing.

Harrison's next scheduled state debate tournament is later this month in Mineola.