WHS Debate Team wins ICDA State for 4th year in a row
The four varsity debaters on WHS's ( Wheeling High School) debate team held hands in their annual tradition as they listened Saturday afternoon to the president of the Illinois Congressional Debate Association as she announced their State Championship.
Over the last 14 years, the team has heard this announcement nine times. During that same 14 years, no other team has won more than once.
"I am so excited that this group of students gets this once in a lifetime experience of not only winning, but doing it together," Mike Hurley, head debate coach, said.
About 20 teams from primarily Chicago suburban high schools competed in the ICDA's two-day competition at Northern Illinois University April 16 and 17. This year, Wheeling High School beat out the second place team, Lake Forest High
School, by 13.5 points, the largest winning point spread Hurley has ever seen.
"As we strategized Friday night, we plotted best case scenario versus worst case scenario," Hurley said. "Basically, the best case that we could have imagined for Saturday happened, which led to this large margin of victory."
Hurley attributes the team's success to the students' commitment to preparation. Over the 18 days the team had to prepare, the 14 students that made up the varsity and junior varsity teams put in over 350 hours of practice and preparation, both with coaches and on their own. The four varsity team members, Jon Tracey of Buffalo Grove, Chris Schwarz of Arlington Heights, Nate Ruben of Wheeling, and Samantha Zuba of Wheeling accounted for about 100 of those hours. Tracey was the only senior on this year's team.
"The coolest part was the Friday night strategy session with Hurley. I remember for the past two years all of the varsity members having that (while I was on JV), and now I was part of that," Tracey said.
This is Schwarz's second State championship, and the first for the other three varsity members.
The two-day ICDA competition consists of students in several chambers debating legislation regarding current events. Each school is allowed to submit one piece of legislation that is then distributed to all of the teams three weeks before the competition. On the competition weekend, one student from each school is placed in each chamber to debate the legislation. The WHS team wrote and submitted a bill that created a 10-cent tax on plastic bags in grocery stores that would fund alternative energy sources. All of the WHS varsity debaters, as well as the majority of WHS JV debaters, got the chance to debate their bill in their respective chambers. The team won a legislative award for the bill.
The JV team won third place overall, behind Deerfield High School in first place and Highland Park High School in second place. Mike Burke and Wendy Relich are the WHS assistant coaches.
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