High school is a place where involvement is everything, and being involved almost always goes hand in hand with being a part of a school club. Rocky Mountain High school is a place where there is no shortage of clubs, however one that may not be as well known is the Speech and Debate Club 

This is a club with endless opportunities and places to have fun, move around, grow, and research. 

“Nothing prepares you for the real world as much as speech and debate…Public Speaking, Critical Thinking skills, and so much more all come with debate,” according to Mr. DeMaret, English teacher and debate team coach.

Those skills are some of the most valuable things for “the real world” outside of high school.. Debate teaches students how to better function in the real world among adults. 

Events like Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, and Policy all shape and refine those skills. 

In Public Forum debate two teams of two go head to head after preparing research on both sides of a topic, one team getting one side of the argument and vice versa. After two heated crossfires, multiple rebuttals, summary and final focus one team comes out victorious after getting more speaker points in the round (basically point total on who had the better arguments).

In Lincoln Douglas debate, two teams of one go into a round after preparing pieces of research on the basis of morals, what idea supports the more ethical views and why. After crossfires, rebuttals, intros, and final summaries one team again wins after getting the most amount of speaker points.

Finally, in Policy debate two teams of two argue in a fast paced battle of who presents the best ideas on a year long topic. Again, the team that has the better writing and speaking skills wins the round.

Current team member Gwen Ramin said, “My favorite thing about debate is meeting new people and learning about new things! It gives me the opportunity to learn about topics that I would’ve never thought about.”