Three Deerfield students returned on October 21, 2024, after competing at the International Independent Schools Public Speaking Competition at Bermuda High School and Saltus Grammar School. Edie Huffard ’25, Billy Tang ’25 (who is a Co-Managing Editor for the Scroll), and Avery Zakowich ’25 (who is the News Page Editor for the Scroll) competed in several events: parliamentary debate, cross examination debate, persuasive speaking, impromptu speaking, and extemporaneous speaking (Zakowich in parliamentary debate, cross examination and persuasive speaking, Tang in extemporaneous speaking and cross examination, and Huffard in parliamentary debate, impromptu speaking, and interpretive reading).
This four-day tournament was highlighted by Huffard winning parliamentary debate, Tang and Zakowich winning cross examination debate, Tang finishing third in parliamentary debate and second in extemporaneous speaking. Because of her success, Zakowich qualified to represent the United States on its national team at the world championships to come in the spring.
Huffard explained the organization of the tournament, and shared that there were three preliminary days, and two rounds of each category. Zakowich and Huffard both finaled in two categories, and Tang finaled in three.
In describing the quick turn around, Huffard said, “You basically go right into it [the debate tournament]; it’s chaos.” Tang seconded that, explaining that the scheduling was very tight, and said, “The tournament stressed the importance of timeliness and being on schedule; it was very efficiently run.”
Despite this initial disarray, Huffard said, “I won top parliamentary debater, and that was based entirely on my final round. It was only my final score that mattered,” touching also on how participants were scored at finals.
Tang shared that he found out last spring that he would be going to when the debate program held auditions, and said, “I was one of the lucky few to be accepted out of a very competitive field of people.” In preparing for this tournament, Deerfield’s debaters practiced the style of their categories, running them in-house with Language Department Chair and Debate Team Advisor Dan Houston. Huffard shared that she felt supported by the Deerfield faculty, especially Visual and Performing Arts Department Chair and Theater Director Catriona Hynds. She said, “I found this piece called “Howl” by Amy Newman, and I loved it. I trimmed that piece, then met with Doc about it, and he helped me edit it down, and I met with Ms. Hynds once to practice it, and then ran it a bunch of times.”
When reflecting on this tournament, Tang shared that despite the Deerfield debate team being a group of seniors leading busy schedules, he believes its members have a strong sense of camaraderie and leadership that is shared among the people of its board. He said, “We value each other not as just classmates who are equally good at what we do but actual friends who we want to see succeed. Debate gets competitive at this level; a lot is at stake. Every win is a win for us at the Deerfield level.”
Huffard shared that she aims to help others grow to feel more comfortable in their debating skills, and said, “A large part of my role in debate is training others.” This sentiment of helping others drives Deerfield’s debate program, and Tang echoed this, saying, “There’s a real feeling of being rewarded as being a part of this community.”