The debate team placed first and second in their divisions at a recent statewide tournament hosted by Desert Ridge High School. The tournament’s topics involved policy in the Middle East, and if it undermines the United States’ national security.
“The debate was amazing, best in history,” coach Angela Kemp-Buzan said. “We’ve gone to tournaments before and competed but this was the first time we’ve ever taken home a trophy.
“It was also a huge accomplishment because that was our novice public forum debate team, and that says a lot for our kids,” she said.
The novice public forum is meant to be a debate related to current political issues that could be understood by a public audience; seniors Dante Bartee, Bailey Wheeler, Will Walker, and freshman Shritej Attaluri competed in the debates. Attaluri and Walker debated as a team, placing first in their division, while Bartee and Wheeler worked together to receive second place in the same division.

“Both pairs went through and won many rounds until they reached the top of their brackets, leaving each other as the only other available team to debate,” Kemp-Buzan said. “This automatically gave both teams first and second place, since a school cannot debate itself.”
These victories were the highest placements the debate team has won to date. The team gained preparation through the past two tournaments, which totaled to about 40 hours of debate time over the course of two weekends, as well as fifth period debate class with Kemp-Buzan, meetings after school every Tuesday, and independent research.
Debate club president, senior Cassie Langenhorst, describes the group’s preparation as rigorous.
“The research was extensive,” she said. “We prepared by getting in each other’s faces and arguing. We were stoked to finally break Perry into the mold and beat the schools who thought they would win the tournament by default.”
The debate club has grown significantly in the past couple of years, now having 30 students involved, including those taking the class as well.
As the team’s popularity continues to grow, PHS will look back on this tournament as their first accomplishment as first and second place recipients in the novice public forum debate division.