Jessica Myhre, Neveah Koch, and Bella Maxwell are Canyon Ridge High School seniors who organized a debate tournament for their senior project on September 21st with the help of CRHS debate coach Mrs. Stacie Gardner. In the debate tournament, many varsity debate members from schools around Twin Falls participated in debating rounds. Twin Falls High School’s team won the tournament.
For Jessica Myhre, her senior project was “all about talking about how to mend team political decisiveness. So basically, communicating when it comes to politics because our world right now is very politically divided between the two parties. So it’s just about communication– which high school debate really focuses on—really just listening to other sides of the story so you can get the full picture and not just what you believe in yourself.”
When asked what inspired her, Myhre responded, “…debate has been a big part of my life. So, I really wanted to do something for my senior project to go out with a bang, something that I’ve loved doing for the past three years.”
The two seniors who helped Myhre, Bella Maxwell and Neveah Koch, commented on the project’s purpose. Neveah stated they “were trying to get a lot of education going through to be able to help teach the [novice debaters] –kind of give them a good first idea of their debates before they go to their first actual tournament.”
The seniors wanted the varsity debate members to practice debating against people and the novice members to learn debate etiquette and what a debate round looks like.
Mrs. Gardner said she had been trying to pitch the idea of setting up a practice debate tournament for several years and that Jessica, Bella, and Neveah were “excited” about running a debate for their senior project. Mrs. Gardner stated that her only struggles when helping the seniors were communicating with them and ensuring that there were no loose ends and that all the jobs were done.
At the debate tournament, Jessica said about the project’s progress: “It’s going good, people are liking it; people are coming up to me… and asking questions that need to be answered, and I think it’s running pretty smoothly.” Bella, Neveah, and Mrs. Gardner agreed that the tournament was going well, too.
For some varsity debaters, such as Jonathan Eichmam, the tournament was an educational experience. “It looks like it was run by adults, but it was really well-constructed. I think for practice purposes it does amazing, it gets people to know each other, as well as get to know their topic a lot more.”
Near the tournament’s end, competitors from Canyon Ridge, Kimberly, and Twin Falls High School gathered in the cafeteria, mingled with other school debate members, and discussed the event. Afterward, the award ceremony commenced, and the three debate types were Congress, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum. Twin Falls High School won the tournament with the most and highest placing participants.
