Many of the best friends of students on our squad are from other schools in our district. When you join our squad, you will improve your speaking and debating skills. We review ballots with students after every tournament. We have practice debates and speeches . We discuss strategies with our teams.
Students do rebuttal drills, extemporaneous and interpretive reading practice and more.
We work with an approach emphasizing group work and team unity . Students who compete on our squad receive one or two credits each semester for up to 12 credits. Whitman debaters have broken at every regional and national level tournament they have attended except four tournaments during the past seven years. In the past seven years, we took first place in CEDA debate at over 30 tournaments, we won the 1999 CEDA National Championship, placed first at the Northwest CEDA Championship two years in a row, semis at Northwestern, octas at the University of Southern California, and Heart of America. Our individual events competitors have qualified for the NIET 17 of the past 22 years , Pat Page was the number one speaker two years in a row at the National tournament and we have won numerous awards in extemporaneous, impromptu, persuasive and interpretive speaking.