The Becton Debate team is currently making “slow but steady progress” five debates into the school year, according to Debate Coach Mr. Carr.

Just two weeks ago, Becton hosted a debate with several other high schools in attendance including Leonia, River Dell, Ridgefield Park, Bergenfield, Wood-Ridge, Tenafly and Fort Lee.  Unfortunately, the debate tournament was never fully completed due to a power failure in the community, which affected the school.

During this past tournament, juniors Cindy Muco and Veronica Hernandez and seniors Catherine Dinapoli and Rebecca Collette each scored two wins during the affirmative rounds. On the contrary, their negatives did not quite meet that accomplishment, scoring them four losses in total. However, with two additional debates ahead of them, no members are disheartened and neither is the coach.

“I’ve been in debate for three years now and nerves always temporarily affect me before any debate. I was extremely nervous this time around though because this debate wasn’t like the others I’ve taken part in. I was debating at Becton where there was an audience of people that I knew and see every day. It just felt different,” explained Cindy Muco.

Additionally, though progress is currently slow, the debate two weeks ago proved that Becton students have their head in the game. Varsity senior judges GaHyun Yoo and Natalie Paredes both received honorable awards and brought forth a sense of pride for their teammates and coach. “I was extremely proud of myself and felt as though I’ve earned a spot as an honorable member of debate,” stated GaHyun Yoo. In a like manner, her partner had similar feelings.

“I felt very happy that I won the award. I was not expecting it at all since I had only judged once that day out of the two matches. When I was a freshman, I remember seeing a senior receiving the Most Valuable Judge Award during our home debate. Ever since then, I made it one of my goals to win this award when I’m on the varsity team,” Natalie said. According to her, if it was not for Mr. Carr’s guidance throughout her years at Becton and her fellow varsity judges, GaHyun Yoo and Rafael Kuc, she would not have received this award.

Stemming from the most recent debates, Coach Carr remarked that his junior varsity teams are showing steady improvement throughout the year with every debate they partake in. “Our varsity judges are second to none,” he said. Currently, varsity team juniors Veronica Hernandez and Cindy Muco are of the 70th percentile of varsity speakers, while Tenzin Jorden and Aleks Charnaev are of the 70th percentile of junior varsity speakers.

Additionally, Mr. Carr is proud to announce that Freshman Blaze Grabowski is one of the top sophomore junior varsity speakers.  Blaze is currently tied for tenth place (95th percentile) among over 350 JV participants.