De Soto High School’s debate team is off to a running start this year. Jason Hagg’s students appear to be more engaged and excited for this weekend’s upcoming tournaments.

“We have 27 kids in the class,” Hagg said. “All the kids in the room are really fired up to go to tournaments.”
This year, the topic is the United States increasing its explorations and developments in the oceans. Every team in the country is required to debate on the same topic.

“Our case is very open,” sophomore Ryan Wollum said. “My group is currently working on the Archimedes Swing Technology.”
Archimedes Swing Technology is gathering energy from the ocean waves to power technology. So far, it has been successfully administered in Portugal and Scotland.

Incoming freshmen, such as Camille Poullain, are happy that this class uses logic to argue a case.

“People actually have to know what they’re talking about and have to be informed on the topic,” Poullain said, “Rather than just spitting out information and tearing other people down to make their point.”

The team this year is strong, with several returning competitors and nearly twenty new freshmen.

“I really think Bret Opfer has some really good potential to bring some stuff to the table,” Hagg said. “There’s not one individual kid in the freshman class [that is better]. I have four tables of them, and all of them are ready to go.”
Debate has grown so large this year, Hagg is considering adding a second debate class. However, he would still prefer it be a class instead of an after school activity.

Freshman Zak Matthews is nervous for the upcoming tournament.

“I feel very very unprepared for that,” Matthews said. “In order to make it a good tournament day, I think we need to find a heck of a lot more for our case.”

The novice tournament will be held at Gardener-Edgerton High School and the more experienced debaters will be at Blue Valley SouthWest High School on Saturday.