Preparation, hard work, practice and “the lucky blue raspberry energy drink” were the secrets behind the year nine debating team from St Patrick’s College, Silverstream winning the Wellington Speaking Union junior certificate. More than 50 schools competed.
The St Patrick’s team members were Gyananjan Ahluwalia, Caleb Malskaitis, Joseph Moorman, and Blake Simcock. They were coached by Maddy van Woerkom.
The competition was held on August 31, at Victoria University of Wellington.
It was the first time in a long while that St Patrick’s had won a debating competition.
“The school community was very excited, because it is true that we have not won a debate competition in at least 20 years. We are also year nines, and it is our first year debating, and this competition is for year nines and tens so it’s pretty impressive that we won,” Joseph said.
Caleb said that practising helped them prepare for the actual competition.
“It was suggested by some teachers that we had a practice debate against some of our senior debaters to test the solidity of our points. We did this the week before and we lost to the seniors, but it was useful to help us strengthen our argument,” he said.
On the other hand, Gyananjan said that the other team seemed less prepared than they were.
“On a few occasions, (the other team) went on a few tangents,” he noted.
“Earlier this season, we had a problem with going on tangents, but we have learnt to deal with that, and learnt how to rebut against teams who go on tangents like we used to.”
It was also the first time since the various lockdowns that the debates were held in-person. The previous competitions were held online.
“It was equally as easy [to prepare for in-person debates] because the format of the debate is the same, just the form of communication was different. It was exciting to get to experience our first in-person debate in the finals,” Blake said.
YEAA CALEB!