Wayland Debate Has Record Success
The Wayland Union Debate Team experienced record success this season. WUHS Debaters participate in legislative debate; a variation of student congress where they compete with 50+ students from various schools. Students gain valuable knowledge through research and writing legislation for the docket/topics of debate, they also gain real-life experience as they prepare arguments while improving their speaking and listening skills.
Wayland Union Debate is a member of the West Michigan Legislative Debate League; competitions are held at different West Michigan schools each month; trophies are awarded to the top eight speakers at each league meet as well as Presiding Officer and top novice (first-year debater) awards. On the final night of the league, there is an awards ceremony for cumulative points throughout the season. Wayland dominated the league this year: Individual speaking trophies were awarded to members of the team throughout the season. In total, we accumulated 25 trophies; a number unheard of in the world of debate.
Debate also offers the students the ability to travel to various weekend tournaments throughout the season. This year the team attended both the Holt Invitational and Groves Tournament. Our students submitted pieces of legislation to be debated and engaged in three rounds of debate each Saturday and represented their team and community with pride bringing home several awards.
The culmination of the season is the Michigan Interscholastic Forensics Association (MIFA) State Championship, which is lovingly referred to as States. States celebrate the best of the debating world, this year hosted at Wayne State University on December 13-14, 2024. At States, debaters highlight their collaboration, innovation, and design thinking in action through multiple rounds of competitive debate. Debate coaches from around the state vote on the most well-written piece of student-written legislation at the tournament. Wayland’s own Senator Tylk and Senator Roberts won this distinguished award at States! Student senators attend the championship to be ranked at the state level; it is an honor to be ranked in the top thirty; Senator Varney, Sen. Alonzo, Sen. Rohde, Sen. Ramirez, Sen. Steensma, and Sen. Haan. received that honor. Receiving the prestigious rank of top twenty-five: Sen. Roberts and Sen. Tylk. Sen. Ward placed 20th. Making it into Super Session means that the student senator is ranked in the top fifteen; Sen. Oosterhouse placed 11th. Breaking into the top ten Team Captain Sen. Klug placed 8th, and novice team member Sen. Noor took 6th.
Coach Andrea Brown is thrilled with both the novice and varsity teams; “I am honored to work with such talented and motivated students. As a team, they are unstoppable; I can’t wait to see what they do in the future.”
