A Tale of Two Academic Teams

Chapter 1: Player Earmark

August 2024. Even though the mathletics team required tryouts, the debate team didn't, and both players who didn't graduate last year return to the team.

For some reason, the school's HSNCT run made so many realize there is more to academic extracurriculars than just mathletics. And certainly Sadie, who feels like she would not be a good mathlete. Then she joins the debate team because she feels like debate plays to her strengths, both academic and intellectual, better than mathletics did.

At the first debate team meeting, the coach has an announcement to make in front of the dozen or so players:

"The quiz bowl team has announced that, starting this season, we have the right to earmark one player for the quiz bowl team. The math team has a reserved spot, too, but they already earmarked someone"

There's only one person the math team could possibly earmark for the quiz bowl team: Imélie, Sadie muses, knowing Imélie is the best returning quiz bowl player. She's smarter and better-rounded, from a scholarship standpoint, than even I. But her personality made debate a poor fit to her.

"I have a question: how many teams can we play for in total?" Chantal, a ninth-grader, asks the coach.

"To prevent players from being overworked, this year, the administration imposed a limit of a maximum of two varsity teams per student, so you can play one sport and debate, or be part of one more academic team and debate. Band and theater are also considered varsity teams for this purpose. New players, please review the overview of events being run at speech and debate tournaments, and don't forget to register with the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) if you wish to compete this year. Returning players, you may continue playing in the same events as last year"

This means the two non-public forum players of last season will play dramatic interpretation and original oratory this season again. Both are theater actors, as is often the case with speech players, with Chantal choosing to play international extemporaneous speech.

But the actual debate events attract most of the new players: there are enough players to field one policy and public forum pair apiece, Joe and Sadie for the latter. One Lincoln-Douglas player, one Senate and two House players. The Senate player asks the following questions:

"What's quiz bowl? Why would the quiz bowl team even want to earmark a spot for us to use?" the Senate player asks the coach.

"Quiz bowl is a head-to-head contest of knowledge about a wide range of topics such as literature, history, social studies, arts and sciences, played with teams of four" the coach explains to the Senate player.

In elementary school, people made fun of me for wanting to know everything. Last year was a stark contrast with my schooling up to this point. While, in middle school, I was already labeled a nerd, here nerds seem to be embraced like nowhere else in southwest Louisiana, Sadie reflects on what she's gotten into.

"My guess is the quiz bowl coach assumes that whoever we earmark will have a decent chance to answer non-science questions. So many at school think debate is a good fit for us because we are smart and are good at language arts and social studies" Sapphire, the dramatic interp player, answers the second question of the Senate player.

"I'll take it; I know exactly how I'm going to fit quiz bowl with public forum debating, and I'm going to focus on, say, the historical context leading up to the subject matter of a resolution, or concepts used in arguments one could use on either side of it" Sadie remarks.

"You do realize you have big shoes to fill on the debate floor. Because Florence was the star of the team last season, but I hope we have two good players as opposed to one" the coach warns Sadie.