The debate team from Fork Union Military Academy competed this weekend in a meet held at Madison County High School, and brought home a first place overall finish in debate sweepstakes. Although they only competed in two of the three debate categories, the team's individual finishes in each category were high enough to bring home the overall first place trophy.
Cadet Michael Head picked up where he left off after last year's state championship with a first place finish in Student Congress. Joshua Henriquez, David Middleton, William Pessaud, and Kaleb Dressler finished second, third, fourth, and fifth respectively behind Head. Congress topics included bills on Common Core, Presidential Primary Election Process, Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Congo, and American involvement in Brexit.
According to debate team faculty adviser, CPT Mike Goad, the surprise of the day was Fork Union's victory in Public Forum, a 2-on-2 "Crossfire"-style debate where teams must prepare arguments for bothe the affirmative and negative side of a given topic. Students do not know which side they will be debating until five minutes prior to each round. Cadets Andrew Hill and Gavin Tomchick attacked a very difficult topic and brought home a first place finish in Public Forum. The topic was "Resolved: On balance, the benefits of the Internet of Things outweigh the harms of decreased personal privacy." This is, as CPT Goad described it, "a very broad and dull topic, which makes debate and research very difficult." CPT Goad noted the hard work the cadets had put into their effort, saying, "Cadets Tomchick and Hill worked hard over the past month to research and prepare for this topic, and I am proud to see their hard work and persistence pay off. Cadet Andrew Morris, although he did not attend the meet, should be commended for his assistance in helping Gavin and Andrew prepare and research."
No participant from another school in Saturday's meet finished ahead of a Fork Union Military Academy cadet in the debate categories in which FUMA participated. CPT Goad was emphatic in placing the credit for this on the work of the Academy's faculty in the classrooms. He said, "I may spend a lot of time with these cadets practicins, but our faculty plays a huge part in their ability to think critically, formulate arguments, and support those arguments. I cannot count the numberr of times they reference somthing they learned from class when formulating their speeches or arguments during practice. Our faculty should be very proud as I know that each teacher has played a major role in our team's success."