辩论赛的准备工作包括研究、案例构建和辩论练习. 研究被称为“剪牌”，是收集引用证据以供使用的过程. 案例构建包括为辩论主题的双方准备演讲和反驳. During practice debates, 队友们在一个话题的两边互相对抗，为在比赛中这样做做准备.

在过去的一年里，索莱伯里演讲和辩论队在南宾夕法尼亚辩论联赛中获得了第三名. They finished behind schools with over a thousand more students, showing that as a team, they are going toe to toe with deep, experienced teams in our region.

Over the summer their success continued. 索莱伯里演讲和辩论队长蒂姆·卡罗尔21岁参加了由胜利简报研究所(VBI)主办的虚拟辩论营，并赢得了营地锦标赛, all six of his prelim rounds, as well as top speaker. He also competed in Lincoln Douglas (LD) at the Socially Distant Dog Days of Summer Tournament 由William Tennent高中和Liam Nyberg和Jan Mejia-Toro共同主持. There were about 27 competitors in LD and Tim won the whole tournament, Liam went undefeated in preliminary rounds and made quarterfinals, and Jan went 4-2.

蒂姆认为辩论使他成为一个更善于表达的学生，并使他能够更轻松地写英语论文. 它挑战了他的信念，并逐渐灌输了一种信念，即轮流倾听他人的意见，然后进行对话是一件好事. "Debate is such an important activity and skill. Especially now, as our country and the world get more divided. 倾听和有意义地回应你不同意的人的能力是如此重要，但却极其罕见. 辩论培养了理性的美德，促进了深思熟虑的讨论，从而培养出更好的学生, citizens, activists, and people."

For captain Casey Epstein-Gross '21, 社区方面对她来说是一个惊喜，已经成为辩论中最重要的方面之一. "I wasn't expecting that to factor into debate at all. 对我来说最酷的是，在辩论中建立的关系从活动中延伸出来，变成了真正的纽带. 我知道我喜欢有趣的争论，我知道我喜欢辩论的行为本身, 但我从没想过我最喜欢的部分之一就是和团队一起出去玩. 我喜欢索伯里辩论的地方在于，它的价值不仅仅在于竞争和获胜, but on bonding, learning, and simply having a good time."

我们的队长对任何想参加辩论的人都有很好的建议. “要意识到，没有人在第一天的辩论中就以辩论大师的身份开始，”蒂姆说. "We all had to begin as novices who knew nothing, 但在经历了多次败局和尴尬的首次演讲后，他们成为了伟大的辩手. Public speaking and thinking of arguments on your feet is difficult, no doubt about that, 但随着你的练习，它会变得越来越简单，随着你的进步，它也会变得越来越有价值."

Casey admits debate sounds scary, stressful, and daunting, 但这些期望带来的焦虑实际上比辩论本身带来的焦虑更糟糕. “重要的是要认识到，没有人不擅长辩论——我们在开始辩论之前都是如此! 我看到很多人一开始甚至不能在观众面前完成他们的演讲，到最后在真正的比赛中获奖."

演讲和辩论目前是秋季的活动，有机会在秋季和冬季进行比赛. 有兴趣参与演讲和辩论的学生可以通过jlevy@solebury联系Jared Levy.org or any of our varsity speech and debate team members.

*上图来自2019-2020学年的一场比赛