Two members of the ERHS debate team, Vishnu Rachakonda and Donovan Harvey, competed in the High School debate team Regionals March 29.

The winners of the regionals weren’t announced but they did qualify for the national tournament. In debate tournaments, schools can send teams consisting of 2 people to each tournament, and can send more than one team from the same school.

The team arrived at 7 am, and at 9:00 AM the first debate began and the teams went head-to-head bracket style. The competition is narrowed down by 3 judges, until 2 teams remain.

Both of the winning teams are crowned and they both move on to nationals. The debate team has also participated in 2 other tournaments, the D.C Urban Debate League and the NSDA regionals. In the D.C Urban Debate League Anish Jain and Arbaz Khativ finished first place,  Rachakonda and Harvey finished second, and Sabah Rana and Jordan Barton finished fifth place.

Many members of the debate team, like Jain, take pride in the success of ERHS. According to Jain, they “take home everything. They even ask us not to come back sometimes”.

For other members, debate is about practicing against other skilled teams. Sabah Rana said “it’s nice to compete against people who were really strong with debate skills”

ERHS has had a debate team in the past, however this is the first time the team has been competitive. The 12 members that make up the team are coached by Coach Harvey, who didn’t debate on a high school level, but according to Donovan Harvey the coach has helped them “grow a lot as a team in terms of sending more people to tournaments”.

Jain and Rachakonda came in as freshman and had been on the team in middle school team also. Tournaments used to be scarce because the few members had to pay out of their pocket to come up with enough money, but by sophomore year they got a sponsor and more people joined.  So far the team is only competing in local tournaments because they aren’t involved in fundraising, but want to go to some tournaments in North Carolina, New York, and Connecticut next year.

Students interested in joining the team should stop by on Wednesdays in Ms. Purcell’s room from 3:30-5:00.