Aaron Livingston, Coach Brian Bown, Tim Counts.
The new Policy Debate team at Marshalltown High School came away from their inaugural competition at Des Moines East Nov. 5 with a fourth place finish overall.
In policy debate, teams of two research a topic and structure a debate in favor and against it. Each year there is one topic set for the entire year. For 2011-2012, the topic is “Resolved that the United States Government should substantially increase exploration and our development of Space beyond the Earth’s mesosphere.”
“They prepare by researching the topic and practicing their case and plan,” said Brian Bown, policy debate coach. “They win awards by winning the debates and they are also rated as to how well they debate whether they win or loose.”
The MHS duo of Tim Counts and Aaron Livingston finished fourth overall at the East Tournament, defeating teams from Dowling Catholic and West Des Moines Valley.
Livingston was also recognized as the second best speaker of the meet.
While MHS has a long history of award-winning forensics, this is the first year for policy debate. Previous attempts to start a policy debate team were unsuccessful. When Bown joined the MHS staff this fall, he was eager to try again.
“He wanted to be part of the program and he enthusiastically jumped into recruiting students for a policy program,” said Dr. Janelle Hawk, who leads the MHS forensics program.
At the first debate Nov. 5 other teams were excited to see Marshalltown taking part.
“They actually announced that we were there and gave us a hand,” Bown said. “Then, we started [winning].”
The other teams were impressed with how strong the MHS debaters were, Bown said, especially considering this was their first competition.
“Every one of the teams at the meet had been to at least two tournaments and this was our first of the year,” he said. “We shocked a lot of the state’s debate powers.”
