Courtesy of Anwesha Chowdhury

The Speech and Debate team placed third in sweepstakes Linfield University on Feb. 7.

Twice a week, students on the Speech and Debate team can be found practicing for their upcoming tournaments. Speech and Debate is an official Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) activity with about 50 participants at the school. 

On Wednesday Feb. 7, the team went to Lindfield University for the Lingletory High School Forensics Tournament. Every competition they have individual awards and a sweepstakes award. During the competition, they received individual awards in specific categories. Anwesha Chowdhury, sophomore, took first place in the Impromptu Speaking category. 

“I always knew that I was a good public speaker but I wanted to know to what extent,” Chowdhury said. “Speech and Debate gave me that place to put my public speaking skills in a competitive place.” 

For Chowdhury, Speech and Debate is about more than just the debates themselves. 

“I think Speech and Debate gives you really essential skills to know,” Chowdhury said. “[Learning to] support your arguments and really being able to find happy friendships and rivalries through your speaking, and just using those assets so you can perform better as a public speaker.” 

A mentor to Chowdhury is her coach, Michael Sugar, history teacher, who oversees the teams practices and helps them learn to debate. Amarou Yoder, English teacher, is the assistant coach. 

“I love Mr. Sugar because he has always given us all the opportunities and all the facilities needed, as well as his time,” Chowdhury said. “He always goes the extra mile to make sure all of us feel very happy doing speech and debate.”

Sugar took over as the coach of the team last November. 

“I enjoy spending time with enthusiastic debaters,” Sugar said. “It’s just fun to hang out with them honestly and watch them get better and support each other. It’s a very positive culture, and I like that.”

Before teaching, Sugar was a participant in  Speech and Debate at Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon.

“I think I benefit from public speaking skills. Also the relationships [and] friendships that they make,” Sugar said. “To this day I’m very good friends with somebody who used to beat me regularly at tournaments from another school. It’s not just Speech and Debate, it’s a lifestyle.”

When figuring out roles for competitions, Sugar’s first consideration is always attendance at practices and prioritizing seniors.  

“People work together well and make friends with their opponents,” Sugar said. “There is a friendly spirit of competition because people know how much work goes into this sort of rare set of skills.”

In addition to individual awards, the team received third place in the sweepstakes.  The way a team receives a sweepstakes award is that they are the winningest team in the competition. Within the competition there is a small school category and a large school category, which is what West Linn’s team is in.

“It’s not just speech and debate,” Sugar said. “It’s a lifestyle.”