Speech and Debate Team
Speech and debate is uniquely suited to build skills in critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, and civic engagement.
academic all-americans
Potomac honored nine Potomac Speech and Debate Academic All-Americans. The four seniors and five juniors were presented with their certificates.
We recently introduced peer grading in our Upper School Speech That Matters class. Here, speeches are given to audiences, not a teacher. We use a peer grading system to assess speeches. Students know they are accountable to each other. It has turned out to be a powerful tool in the class. Every speech gets an oral critique from the class as well. It creates an environment where risk taking works and failure is OK. It also holds students accountable to important speech making practices like eye contact, or verbal command of an audience.
Harry Strong, Upper School Faculty
In the short term, most debaters will notice that debate will help them in the classroom. Over the long term, debate significantly increases the success rate of college applicants. Most debaters are “hooked” once they compete at their first tournament, and the activity promotes and teaches many of the same virtues of a competitive sport, such as the importance of diligence and teamwork.
Why sign up for Speech and Debate?
The most common reason that students compete in Speech and Debate is that it’s fun! If that strikes you as odd, consider these thoughts:
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1) You will make friends at other schools all over the metro area and the state of Virginia. Eventually, your friend base will grow to include students throughout the nation. Only in debate to you get to know and become friends with your opponents!
2) We travel all over the country to compete. The more successful you become, the more opportunities you will have for travel.
3) Outsmarting your opponents provides a sense of accomplishment, especially given that public speaking greatly scares many people!
4) If you like competing, then this is an activity for you. Debate is as competitive as any sport!
5) You get to spend time a group of really smart, cool people who will make help you become even more intelligent.
6) Only in speech and debate to you really get to “Suit Up” and love it.
Speech and Debate is an activity that allows for continual self-improvement.
1) This is a life-changing experience. You will become a profoundly stronger student and more effective at any profession in the future because of a speech and debate background. A 2015 Pew Research study shows that 90% of American adults said the best things to learn in school to get ahead were communication skills, logic, writing, and teamwork—exactly the skills we teach in speech and debate! Plus, during the 2021-21 school year, nine Potomac School students were named Academic All-Americans in debate!
2) There are lots of college opportunities and scholarships in Speech and Debate!
• Colleges naturally recruit Speech and Debate students at a higher level than athletes.
• Did you know the University for Alabama has won more national debate titles (19) than national football titles (16)?
Speech and Debate is for everyone, not just future lawyers!
The truth is that debate students enter all professions in life. Coach Strong has seen his former debaters become chefs, engineers, scientists, businessmen and businesswomen, researchers, public policy experts, lawyers, ministers, and doctors. The truth is that debate helps any student in any profession.
What is Speech and Debate like at Potomac? Potomac competes in several styles of debate. Public forum and worlds schools debate are the common forms. Public forum debate involves teams of two students debating a topic that has been researched for a month before competition. Worlds schools debate is involves teams of three students debating both prepared and impromptu “Parli” styled motions. After school practices consist of skills development, scrimmages, research, and a lot of conversation!
What kinds of topics are debated?
The topics are very timely and reflect what students and families might read about or see in the news.
Does Speech and Debate count as an activity or a team sport credit?
Students who participate in debate in both the fall and the winter have the opportunity to do an athletic independent study for one season and receive an activity credit for the other season. Alternatively, some students choose debate in the fall and then play a sport in the winter, and vice versa. However, the most successful debaters tend to be those who compete in both seasons, and most of our returning debaters plan to compete in both seasons next year.
What if my student has no previous experience?
Everyone begins as a novice, and we welcome students from all Upper School grades. Finding one’s voice competing is the first challenge. After that, learning debate is pretty simple.
What does the practice schedule look like?
The debate team functions just like a sports team in that we have daily practices and two weekend tournaments per month. Practices are daily from 3:30 to 5:30 pm (with some Wednesdays off).
What kind of student makes a good debater? Is debate “too academic” for my student?
There are lots of ways to be a great debater, and our debate team includes many different personalities. Generally, the best debaters are people that are intellectually curious, can think critically about a topic, and are competitive by nature.
Taylor Burris '24 continued her run of success, finishing fourth at the Harvard National High School Invitational Forensics Tournament in extemp, was runner-up at Metro Extemp Finals, and added the Metro championship in impromptu to her list of accomplishments. Placing at Harvard is difficult as nearly 5,000 students from 462 U.S. and international high schools traveled to this year's tournament.
Sebastian Gardner '25 semi-finaled at Harvard in congressional debate, matching our highest finish at the Harvard debates in five years. Gardner and Armaan Sethi '26 both won leadership awards at Harvard. Ethan Maher '25 was invited to the prestigious Harvard Congressional round-robin tournament the day before the main event. Alexander Bauer '25 joined Sethi and Maher with a quarter-final finish. Graeme Evans '24 also advanced to the quarter-finals for Potomac in humorous interpretation at Harvard.
The speech students only had a few days to recover from Harvard as they faced the challenges at the WACFL Speech Metro Finals this past Saturday, winning team sweeps for the metro schools in Northern Virginia.
Burris' Metro title in impromptu speaking led the speech effort. Isabella Chumpitaz '24 was the runner-up in oral interpretation. Charlotte Ross '26, Meredith Vorndran '25, Burris, and eighth grader Anika Agrawal qualified for two events for the NCFL tournament. Finally, congratulations to Thomas Shanmugam '26 and William Shanmugam '27 on their wins at the DCUDL public forum tournament this past weekend!
This year's George Mason University Patriot Games Speech and Debate tournament was an excellent event for Potomac’s speech and debate team. The event featured students from 14 states. Potomac claimed third place in team sweeps. The team was led by Meredith Vorndran '25, who placed fourth in individual sweeps, and Alex Bauer '25, who placed tenth overall. His efforts were backed by several final-round appearances by the team, including three final rounds by Vorndran. Taylor Burris '24 also finished the tournament strongly with two final rounds. Potomac dominated in congressional debate, extemporaneous speaking, and impromptu speaking. A list of the final results can be found here. Congrats to all!
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Ranked 79 in the nation, Potomac’s speech and debate team has had several strong performances this year. In late October, 18 debaters competed in the 40th Annual Florida Blue Key tournament at the University of Florida, placing fourth against larger Florida programs. While at UF, Taylor Burris '24 placed second in both extemp and impromptu speaking. Ethan Maher '25 placed third in congressional debate.
Separately, 41 team members recently traveled to Philadelphia for the Villiger tournament at St. Joseph's University. It was our program's best Villiger performance in memory, placing fourth overall against some of the nation's best programs. Potomac students faced and won many rounds against the nation's first- and third-ranked programs at Villiger.
The most notable wins came in the final round of congressional debate as Armaan Sethi '26 and Sebastian Gardner '25 finished first and second, respectively. Those performances were backed up by Adrian Atwater '24 and Maher, who also advanced to the finals. Burris and Hannah de Souza ’25 continue their leadership in speech events with a season-long series of high placements.
Two additional debaters won the inaugural Brown University Public Forum tournament in early November. Congratulations to Sasha Leifer '26 and Tristan Mankovsky '27 on their championship.