Senior Sophia Li remembers sitting in her freshman debate class, dreaming of what it would be like to compete as a representative of the country. Last year, her dream became a reality as she is embarking on her second year on the USA National High School Debate Team.
Li is serving as one of the captains this year and will be accompanied by junior Sherry Zhang who is a new member of the team.
Team USA differs from a standard debate team because the debaters attend international tournaments in which they represent the nation. According to Zhang, the commitment is around two to five hours a week, not including tournaments.
“It’s different from the Greenhill team for sure, and it’s a little bit higher of a commitment level,” Zhang said.
Zhang says being a part of the Greenhill team helped her reach this level, and to maintain Greenhill’s strong debate program, Director of Debate Aaron Timmons has been working with these students to bring out the best in them.
Rather than explicitly preparing students for Team USA, the debate coaches work towards letting them excel at debate tournaments first, which often fits into what the National team is looking for.
“Our focus is to make them good researchers, thinkers, speakers [and] teammates. The things that those skills tend to bring out of folks is a package that fits well on the national team,” Timmons said.
Still, Li and Zhang are living a dream that most debaters have and serve as role models for the underclassmen and students in the Introduction to Debate course.
“Being on the national team has always been a dream of mine. It has let me know so many new people and I could not be more grateful,” Li said.
With a strong passion for debate, this selective team has opened many doors for the students.
As the year progresses, the two debaters will be debating on international grounds, such as a tournament in Singapore this spring.
Being her first time with Team USA, Zhang says she is very excited for this adventure into the international debate world.
“We’re doing another tournament this month, and then we’re going to a couple other places,” Zhang said.
With an average of one tournament a month, Zhang and Li are working towards practicing and solidifying their skills.
Their most recent competition was the Pacific Schools Open Debate Online Tournament from Nov. 10-12. The USA Gold team made it to the semifinals, and Li was awarded sixth speaker.
Li says she is looking forward to the next tournament, Croatia’s Winter Holiday Open, in which both Li and Zhang will fly to Croatia on Dec. 13.
