Due to the global pandemic, the PHS debate team had to debate virtually this past season. It was a year in debate history that is different form all others. Troubles with the technology and impatience from coaches and competitors, made it a hard year. But, that didn’t stop the Dragons from debating their best.

Debate Coach Julie Laflen had to deal with these types of problems constantly. 

“I just think it was a big learning curve especially for novice first year debaters, because not only did they have to learn how to debate, they had to learn how to debate virtually. I didn’t know how to teach that, because I have never done that. Some other big challenges included technical issues. I didn’t feel that our students had a lot of technical problems, but when they debated against teams who had technical problems, it made the rounds go really slow.”

Laflen had to change the style in how she taught her class to ensure remote students were getting the same lessons at home that were being taught in the classroom.

“I utilized Canvas for everything, I didn’t hand out things in person. So, in my opinion, I set up my classroom in a way that it didn’t matter if you were online or in person, you were getting the exact same instruction and the exact same lessons. I mean, you were missing out on the relationship with the people in the classroom, because you couldn’t physically see them and physically be near them. But as far as curriculum goes, the experience goes, I would say it was exactly the same. And I wanted it to be the same because I don’t want kids to have to miss out on an opportunity simply because they were online or because they were quarantined.”

Senior debater Elliot Norman chose to find the positives during the season rather than focus on negatives.

“It definitely did suck that we didn’t get that same person to person contact that you have in regular debate. But, I definitely didn’t mind online debating as much as some people did. I liked not having to wake up early and actually get on a bus for an hour to drive to Kansas City. That was nice.”

Novice debater freshman Noah Niederklein noticed throughout his season that he had more respect for people who showed patience during this challenging experience.

“This experience definitely developed lots of patience, like having better respect for people and knowing that nobody is perfect.,” Niederklein said.

Though it was a hard year, it was a successful year for the Dragons. According to Julie Laflen, PHS was first place in sweepstakes, or the most wins at a tournament, at least four times. Norman and senior debater Jared Spiers won the South Kansas District Tournament, which means they will represent South Kansas in the NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association) Debate Tournament.