Juneau high school debate team to send four competitors to nationals
- Ellie Ruel
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
State champions headed to Virginia, every member of team made it to a final event round
By Ellie Ruel
Juneau Independent
Juneau’s high school debate team didn’t get a top spot at the state championships. It got both of them.
For the first time ever Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé is sending two pairs of debaters to one of the largest national academic competitions in the country this summer. That’s due to a record-setting performance at the ASAA Drama, Debate and Forensics Championships in Anchorage in late February that lacked the typical final public forum debate showdown and a clear scoreboard ranking.
“We became co-champions, which is the first time it's ever happened for Juneau, because usually we always have some kind of competitor from another town,” said senior team captain Alivia Gomez.
Maddie Bass and Samuel Lagerquist; and Alivia Gomez and Rain Belle Turley tied for first in public forum debate. Bass placed first for public forum speaker points, with Lagerquist following in fifth and Gomez in 10th. Overall, the team placed second in points sweepstakes, winning first place in the forensics (speaking) category, and second in the drama and debate categories. Other competitors medalled in a variety of other drama and speaking competitions.
It won’t be Gomez’s first time at the National Speech and Debate Tournament, scheduled in mid-June in Richmond, Virginia. She won the state championship and competed in last year’s national competition as well, marking another milestone for the team. She said the higher-stakes competition was overwhelming, but she still appreciated the experience.
“I loved nationals last year, but I always tell people that my least favorite part about going to nationals was probably actually competing,” Gomez said, laughing. “Everyone in the school is doing the exact same event as you, everyone in there is just as driven as you to win. Everyone there has different debate styles, because nobody does it like Southeast Alaska, like it's so everyone down there is so, like, fast speaking, like throwing things at you. And it was really kind of lonely.”
Her favorite part, she said, was judging the middle school competitors after being knocked out of the bracket, some of whom she noted were more skilled than the high school debaters.
“Being able to talk to them, and have honest conversations with them after the debate and tell them what I thought they did well, what I thought they could improve on, and things like that, really, it felt like a full-circle moment,” Gomez said.
For her debate partner, Rain Belle Turley, the experience will be a little more novel. It was Turley’s first time competing in the state championships and second full season of DDF.
“Leaving Alaska, it's kind of a culture shock just as is, let alone in such a competitive and high-energy environment,” she said. “There's a lot that I have to prepare myself for and to take into consideration when building up our future debate case. I'm so grateful that I have Alivia who has that experience.”
She said the experiences she had over the last year prepared her for the final event. Most students noted with the highs come a lot of lows, but they can be educational experiences all the same.
“My second-ever meet was state last year,” Turley said. “I didn't get to fully join the team until regionals, and given how new I was to the team, in many instances, I kind of crashed and burned. But if anything it got me ready for next year, prepared me for what I needed to look forward to.”
The frankness many of the students expressed about their low points was praised by the coaches as a sign of growth they’ve seen over this year. For three of the four students headed to nationals, state was their last debate with the team before graduation.
“Their ability to take in the feedback, use it and adjust – whether it's feedback they wanted to hear or feedback they didn't want to hear,” said co-coach Corrine Marks. “And that's just always the case, right? It's not easy to hear criticism, but it's really important to be able to listen to it, take it in, and pick and choose what will work for you. Sometimes they had to take constructive criticism that they wasn't going to work for them, and work around it. And I think that's also a really important skill.”
The team has spent its entire season working on the same issue: whether the Federal Trade Commission should establish a formal regulatory framework for sports gambling. The experience from regionals has allowed them to tweak their arguments and approaches along the way.
During the last meet in Juneau, Gomez and Turley placed second in their final public forum debate, losing to Sitka by a 2-3 vote.
“I watched the debate and they were amazing. I couldn't quite figure out what they ought to have done differently,” Marks said, “By the time you're a senior, you've done speeches and debates. Whether you win or lose at a tournament, for me as a coach, becomes almost superfluous, because you have the skills you need now, whatever ends up happening resultswise, you guys are going to be fabulous for the rest of your life.”
Lagerquist, who plans to pursue a prelaw program, said delving into policy and public speaking gave him key experiences for moving forward.
“I’m going to be using lessons, sometimes harder to learn, sometimes tips from other competitors, coaches, or even sometimes opponents about how to improve my speaking,” he said.
Luke Strong, who partnered with Lagerquist to perform a comedic duet acting piece, said DDF helped him grow through high school.
“I did this for the first time when I was 14 years old. The amount that I've changed just because of this activity is kind of insane,” Strong said. “The team really is just like a big family, so it's just so weird to graduate.”
For Turley, learning articulation and public speaking helped her feel more confident to advocate for change in the world.
“DDF is something that has, I know helped me, personally, so much in that it teaches us how to advocate for change, to research these issues that we find important to us, to really take a step back and look at the world around us and consider what we need to do to fix the issues that we see. It teaches us how to advocate,” Turley said. “It teaches us empathy. It shows us how to really be the change that we want to see.”
Funding is a barrier the team is hoping to overcome, since most of their travel isn’t subsidized by the school activities office. Last year, Gomez said students had to fundraise about $12,000 to send a team to nationals.
“The sad truth is that our activities, no hate to the activities office, doesn't put a strong emphasis on DDF whatsoever. Our community doesn't really either,” Gomez said. “Even though I love this sport and I love how much it accomplishes, I think it could accomplish more if it got the attention that it deserved and if we were met halfway in terms of funding. I've spent thousands of dollars this year just to be able to do this. And it's sad that other sports and activities don't have those cost barriers, but we do because we pay for every single time that we travel. Just because it's doable doesn't mean that it's easy, and I would never want that to be a burden for someone else who wants to enter this activity.”
It’s also the longest activity season at the school, running September to March. Because nationals are in June, the debaters will be preparing up through graduation.
Their upcoming showcase is their main fundraising event of the year, and also gives them a little more creative freedom since they’re not limited to three events like at the state championships.
“We get to just perform whatever pieces we want. So we’re talking about reviving our duo that we had to kill for state. It's fun to bring that stuff back,” Gomez said.
The fundraiser is scheduled for this Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in the JDHS Commons, featuring acting and speech performances as well as a dessert and silent auction. Ticket proceeds will support team expenditures.
• Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
