Practice for debate season has begun, and this year, with a new season comes a new coach. English Teacher Mr. Shin has taken over as debate coach, and his main goal is to organize and support the varsity and junior varsity teams in order to continue the Becton debate legacy. He is extremely confident that the team will do well this season.

One question returning debaters seem to have is whether Model Congress will continue, and at this time, Mr. Shin says as far as he knows, it will.

The debate adviser noted that as part of his public speaking class, he actually teaches a debate unit.

While it is too early to split the JV and varsity teams, each debater is composing a 90 second speech about any topic of his or her choice. The goal is to see how well each student can persuade and speak aloud.

Sophomore Rebecca Collette said, “I love that Mr. Shin is the new coach. He was a fun and exciting teacher last year and has a great personality.”

Although the adviser is learning more about the strategic side of debate, the experienced debaters are open to helping any of the newcomers at the moment.

Furthermore, Sophomore Victoria Gramlich thinks that Mr. Shin will focus on how debaters present themselves rather than the factual side of the debates.  Mr. Shin will likely be more judgmental with student’s writing in the sense that he is an English teacher. He will read through plans and speeches and tweak what he feels need to be fixed to make the writing the best it can be.

With Mr. Shin as the coach and seniors Jamie Scangarella and Ayah Suleiman as the captains of the debate team, it is agreed that the debaters, new and old, can go far and bring home several victories.