Theodore Waterson

Troy Debate Tournament competitors gather for picture after awards ceremony.

The Talking Rams speech and debate team attended their first tournament of the year at Francis Howell North and Troy Buchanan High Schools Oct. 10 and 11.  They have spent the last month preparing for the tournament practicing four days a week after school with coaches Theodore Waterson and Greg Schmitz. 

At 2 p.m Oct. 10 the team left Ladue High School for Francis Howell North, where students would select up to two speech events and compete in three rounds. Students can choose from Original Oratory, Extemporaneous Speaking and Dramatic Interpretation as well as other events. 

This season’s starting tournament was marked with a lot of competitive success for the Talking Rams. Elle Saleeby (10) received 5th in Radio Speaking and 3rd in International Extemporaneous Speaking, Emery Mao (10) received 3rd in Dramatic Interpretation, Ananya Goli (10) received 2nd in Dramatic Interpretation, Nathan King (11) received 4th in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking and Felix Zhang (11) received 3rd in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking.

Early the next morning the team departed again to make the 50 minute drive to Troy Buchanan High School. There, competitors competed in one of three debate events; Policy, Public Forum or Lincoln Douglas. Competitors enter their round, some with their partner if competing in Policy or Public forum, to debate the resolution prescribed by the National Speech and Debate Association. Several of the team’s novices debated here for the first time. 

“I was really scared because I thought I was going to suck,” novice debater Dami Kannan said. “Then I realized that even if I do suck, I have fun doing it, so it doesn’t really matter.”

The Talking Rams continued their streak from the night before, seeing even more competitive success. In JV Public Forum, partners Charlie Fan (9) and Zoran Pan (10) received 1st place. In Varsity Public Forum Sasha Prasad (10) and Emery Mao (10) received 7th and Urmil Patel (12) and Rex Zhu (12) received 5th. In Varsity Policy, Ashvik Chilakala (11) and Daniel Wang (11) received 3rd. In Novice Lincoln Douglas, Diya Kannan (10) received 6th. In JV Lincoln Douglas, Sophie Yuan (10) received 7th. In Varsity Lincoln Douglas, Adelaide Flintrop (11) received 3rd and Nathan King (11) received 2nd. 

“I feel pretty cool,” Wang said. “It was pretty fun to go up [on stage]. I think we won a lot of our rounds, [and] we only lost to the tournament winner.”

They also received 5th place in overall sweepstakes, having received a cumulative 65 NSDA points with their combined results at the tournaments. 

Head coach Theodore Waterson had never coached speech and debate before, and had entered the tournament not entirely sure what to expect, but finished the weekend immensely impressed with the students. 

“I would be in the staff room and hear parents, coaches, teachers, and competitors alike talking about how wonderful Ladue students were,” Waterson said. “This is the first time in a while that I’ve felt truly proud to work at Ladue.”