HHS Debate Team Celebrates 10 Years With Two Diamonds

The Harrison High School Debate Team launched its tenth year with a second place finish at the Byram Hills Tournament and a Two Diamond Award for the team’s advisor Chetan Hertzig.

Diamond Awards from the National Speech and Debate Association Honor Society are given to advisors whose students have excelled at tournaments, and these advisors receive a fraction of the points their students earn. Mr. Hertzig earned his first Diamond as the advisor of the Harrison High School Debate team in 2013. At least five years must pass before another diamond can be awarded.

“The program has undergone a number of changes in its first nine years,” said Hertzig. “We went from being a small, locally- and regionally-successful program to one that wins national championships within our first few years.”

Most high schools, especially those that have high national rankings, offer Speech and Debate as a curriculum class. Harrison does not. The students spend countless hours during the summer and after school preparing for competition.

“The program's growth seems to me to be strongly linked to the growth of the IB program in our district. Debate is a perfect match for the IB, in that it emphasizes the same qualities - the ability to critically examine and question content, understand alternative perspectives, and present one's own views in a compelling way,” said Hertzig. “I would love to see Debate become a class, as it was in my high school and is in many schools around the country. I think that would provide a way to expand the benefits of the activity to students who want to experience it but don't necessarily have the time to compete at tournaments.”

“I'd also love to see the program become a more established part of the middle school. Most of the strongest debate teams nationwide do have middle school debate, so the students there start high school with a strong understanding of the activity.”

Mr. Hertzig is also proud of the inclusion and diversity of the team and of teams past. Currently in the state of New York, HHS senior Eli Lapkin ranks 3rd, Ava Zinman is 11th and Ethan Voskoff is 16th.

Harrison debaters have ranked in the Top 5 in the past few years and look to continue that trend with this year’s team. Harrison’s Debaters have gone on to debate for their collegiate teams – Harvard, Georgetown, Columbia, and the University of Chicago to name a few.

“The program has always been a forum for female leadership, and has trained several nationally competitive women to debate at the top levels of a male-dominated activity. Additionally, six of our 13 active members are people of color, a significant increase from past years. As we move into our second decade, I hope to see the team's diversity increase in all respects, as I think debate has the power to change lives. Additionally, I would love to see more non-debate students get involved in the activity by judging at tournaments. Even students who don't compete can make a major contribution (and earn CAS hours) by participating as judges,” he said.

This year’s season began with a second place win by HHS junior and team captain Ava Zinman who reached the final round of the Byram Hills Tournament and was named the tournament’s 2nd speaker. This marks the fifth time a Harrison debater has reached finals of Byram, and the first time Ava has reached the final round of a tournament. Fellow team captain Ethan Voskoff reached the quarterfinals and was named the tournament’s 5th speaker.

Sophomores Molly Ryan, Anthony Kang, and Giovanni Cutri all had winning records, and Rebecca Anderson and Sonali Nicola also did a great job representing the team at their first varsity tournament. Special congrats to Molly on being named the 10th speaker!

Sophomores Anthony Kang and Molly Ryan were co-champions of the JV division of Yale Tournament, closing out the final round. Both debaters were 5-1 in prelims and Anthony was named the 6th speaker, and Molly was 12th. Congratulations as well to Sonali Nicola, who reached octofinals, where she was coached over by Molly. None of the three JVers lost an elimination round.

At the Greenhill Fall Classic, team captain Ava Zinman earned her first TOC bid after reaching octofinals. Captain Ethan Voskoff had a strong 3-3 record after losing a difficult bubble round, and Giovanni Cutri also did well at one of the nation's most competitive tournaments.

Next weekend, Rebecca Anderson will compete at Valley High School's Sophomore Throwdown Round Robin, and will be joined at the tournament proper by Ethan and Eli Lapkin