Deerfield Debate Launches New Year-Long Co-curricular Program

COURTESY OF DEERFIELD DEBATE TEAM

This year marks a new chapter for Deerfield Debate, which aims not only to win, but to grow. Following the team’s accomplishments in the recent years, it also celebrates the launch of its long-awaited debate co-curricular, which has transformed the program from a thrice-weekly club that convenes after sit-down into a full-fledged program.

From October 16-20, Co-Managing Editor of the Scroll John Woo ’26, Casey Lee ’28, and Associate Editor of the Scroll Alice Chen ’28 competed in the International Independent Schools Public Speaking Competition (IISPSC), hosted this year by the Waynflete School in Portland, Maine. The event gathered around 120 top speakers from North America, India, Bermuda, and Hong Kong for four days of rounds in debate and public speaking events.

Each competitor selected three events. Woo competed in parliamentary debate, extemporaneous speaking, and cross-examination, Lee in cross-examination, parliamentary debate, and persuasive speaking, and Chen in parliamentary debate, impromptu speaking, and persuasive speaking.

“It was definitely a lot of stress and time spent in preparation—I probably rewrote my persuasive speech like 60 times,” Lee reflected. “It was definitely worth it when I got there and saw all this work come to fruition and had the opportunity to meet so many new friends.”

Woo secured the title of Parliamentary Debate Champion, marking the third consecutive year a Deerfield debater has won the championship. Lee and Woo placed second as a pair in cross-examination, and Lee placed third overall in the U16 division and qualified for Team USA for the World Individual Public Speaking and Debating Championships in the UK this spring. Chen finaled in persuasive speaking, ranking as the seventh overall American speaker. As a team, Deerfield placed eighth overall in the competition.

The debate members were chosen through an audition process that drew seven competitors, who each prepared material across their chosen categories for a panel of four judges: Debate Coach Dan Houston, Deerfield teachers John Leistler and Matt Kutalowski, and former Deerfield Debate Coach Geoffrey Buerger. Lee described, “it was a very difficult audition process because everyone was obviously super talented.”

For Dr. Houston, who has led Deerfield Speech and Debate for many years, the international experience represented more than just competition. Speakers received feedback from a panel of judges that are “just members of the community” rather than actual coaches. Dr. Houston believes that there is value in “learning how to connect with an average person,” and through this competition, debaters were able to do so.

Additionally, students from Deerfield were able to form friendships with people who are usually their rivals. “The other piece of it, though, is camaraderie. When we American schools go to an international event, the Americans all become besties because we have a new opponent,” Dr. Houston said.

The Deerfield’s new debate co-curricular, which began this fall, gives debaters time to prepare for tournaments. The co-curricular, long requested by students and coaches, allows debaters to treat their passion as a full-time co-curricular rather than an extracurricular club layered on top of sports and the many other commitments Deerfield students dedicate themselves to.

“We’ve been working on it for a couple of years trying to make it happen,” Dr. Houston explained. “People were concerned with adding an additional co-curric … and the thought that it would become a place for kids to just hang out to avoid doing other co-curric commitments.” Ultimately, the need to give serious debaters a “home” overruled these initial concerns.

The new structure brings many opportunities for those passionate about the activity. Dr. Houston talked about the significance of simply having more time. “It allows us to explore other forms of debate. We’ve always done our little league, the Debating Association of New England Independent Schools (DANEIS) … it never conflicts with sports. But there’s a whole other world out there— geared toward public schools but they’re a huge nationwide organization and they do all of their stuff on Fridays and Saturdays,” he said.

Students of the co-curricular echoed the same sentiment. “[Debate] should be treated like a sport because of how much time you have to put into it and dedicate yourself to in order to succeed,” Henry Fuller ’28 said.

The co-curricular also includes a community engagement component. Every Tuesday, debaters visit The Bement School to run after-school debate pods for students. Fuller said, “We normally have them do some sort of activity, whether it’s impromptu speaking or sort of round, that’s like going against each other, and then we do a lesson.” Chelsea Shen ’27, who is an Associate Editor for the Scroll, also noted the positive effect on the students, saying, “It’s been a little over a month, but we’re trying to build it up to have them hit the ground running in high school.”

Dr. Houston saw this partnership as a defining feature of the program. “As a club, we could never get out in the world. But as a co-curricular, we can get out there and talk to people about debate.” He added that although members of the co-curricular range from novice to very experienced, all of them need to be able to teach. No matter the skill of the debater, “you don’t really know something until you can teach it,” he said.

Though the program is still developing, it marks a major shift in Deerfield’s academic and co-curricular landscape. Alumnus Justin Ahn ’24, a former captain of Deerfield Debate, shared, “We had so many years in a row of success, so they want to acknowledge and reward that and also make sure that level of success is sustained in the future.”

From international podiums to Bement classrooms down Main Street, Deerfield’s debaters represent the Academy’s sense of community and values. As Houston said, “We went out with Choate to get gelato—they were all forming these amazing friendships and having so much fun with each other. That’s the stuff I’ll remember 10 years from now —not the debate rounds but these moments of awesome friendship.”