On Saturday, September 21, the annual Vestavia Novice Tournament commenced. Each year, the Alabama circuit Speech and Debate season begins with a tournament reserved exclusively for novices. Here, students new to speech and debate competitions can face rivals with similar levels of experience and gain exposure to tournament-style competitions.
This year’s tournament was competitive from the start, with a total of seventeen schools in attendance. Some even traveled from out of state to compete. The school was packed with competitors, with ninety-six novice debaters and eighty-six entries for speech. Even still, the novices made up the smallest portion of those present, with coaches, parents, and senior team members also in attendance.
A unique twist was added to the competition when a new category of debate was offered at the tournament: Big Questions. While Public Forum or Lincoln Douglas debates are usually highly researched and philosophical, “BQ” debates are more analytical. Competitors are encouraged to use their personal experiences and logic to argue their case. By utilizing their individuality in addition to their command of language and definitions, BQ novices were able to defend their stances in a manner atypical in other realms of debate. Twelve novices were brave enough to compete in a category unfamiliar to the Alabama circuit debate, and they succeeded despite the challenge.
The Novice Tournament’s results paint a bright picture of Vestavia Speech and Debate’s future. Vestavia novices chose from a wide variety of Speech events, but they mainly focused on three categories: Dramatic Interpretation, Impromptu, and Informative. Avery Allen brought home the first-place trophy in DI, with Holland Abernathy directly behind in second place. Debate-turned-speech competitor Evelyn Kutny took first place in both Impromptu and Informative speaking.
Vestavia’s sweep continued in debate, with John Pickett placing second in BQ via tie-breaker. In Lincoln Douglas, Aleena Farooqui placed first out of forty-one competitors. Second through fifth place went to Connor Moorhouse, Andy Sheng, Jeffery Zhao, and Alan Sheng, respectively, while Aadi Agarwal claimed seventh place and Rett Kline took ninth. The Lincoln Douglas team is incredibly proud of its novices, especially considering that every novice member placed in the top nine! Public Forum debate was also a victory for Vestavia, with Dviya Mehta and Astha Ramani coming in first and the Li-Li duo (Anthony Li and Abigail Li) in seventh.
Overall, the tournament was a victory for Vestavia, and the team is excited for the upcoming debate season. If you see any of our novices at school, be sure to congratulate them on their win!
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