Lee ’28, Woo ’26 Debate at Worlds Championships

Held in Bristol, England, this year’s World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) invited over seventy national teams to participate in an eight-day debate tournament with over 165 top high schools from 17 different countries.

Two Deerfield students, Casey Lee ’28, and John Woo ’26, were members of the student group representing the USA Debate Team. Both students have been members of the Deerfield Speech and Debate Team since their freshman year.

Woo qualified for the USA Debate Team by winning first-place awards at the New England District Qualifier competition this year, whereas Lee qualified earlier this year at the International Independent Schools’ Public Speaking Competition (IISPSC).

The WSDC is an annual event that, according to their website, “is designed to bring together the top high school public speakers and debaters from around the world.” The locations rotate annually; the first competition in 1988 was held in Reading, England, and recent competitions have been held in Durban, South Africa, Toronto, Canada, and Sydney, Australia.

While each country competes against the others, individual scores are tallied up and graded at the end. The competition is comprised of five categories: Persuasive Speaking, After-Dinner Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, Parliamentary Debating, and Interpretive Reading. Contenders only compete in four, choosing between Persuasive or After-Dinner. 

Competitors have three ways to qualify for participation. The first is through winning categories in the IISPSC, where only five Americans advance to the WSDC, Lee being one of them. Another is through local debate competitions, which is the path Woo took. Coaches from the organizing independent schools of the WSDC can also select participants to join the national team.

Woo and Lee travelled with Language Department Chair, Teacher, and Deerfield Speech and Debate Team coach Dan Houston. Though the primary focus was competing, Lee mentioned how “England was wonderful…because it was beautiful and the architecture was old and humbling.” She thought that “it’s really cool that the hosts rotate [locations], and it’s really cool to be able to travel and see so many cultures.” In England, Lee and Woo lived at Clifton College, a secondary-boarding school, where they stayed with other competitors and coaches all within the same hallways and rooms. Both Dr. Houston and Woo believed that the boarding experience was an interesting experience, the former mentioning that “it was controversial.”

Meanwhile, the USA Team also included students and coaches from Groton School, The Hotchkiss School, and Choate Rosemary Hall. Lee remarked that she enjoyed collaborating with them, and noted how “everyone on the USA Team were such brilliant and exceptional people, and the conversations we had generally changed the way that I thinked, and it was a really wonderful experience, and to have a different perspective.” However, she noted that “you’re working with an entirely new debate partner, where you have to master their style and their language.” 

The USA Team faced some competition this year from the Canadian, Australian, and South African teams, who all received dozens of medals. While the American team has taken number one consecutively for many years, Dr. Houston stated how they went in “a little bit overconfident,” and that the other countries “really came to win it.” 

Nevertheless, Lee and Woo both made it to the semifinal round. Dr. Houston noted how Lee and Woo were both praiseworthy, and “especially Lee because she’s a sophomore.”

When presenting an argument or a speech, Lee stated how she felt “a sense of adrenaline rush in [the] debate because it’s so competitive, and with the prep time being so short (ten minutes), urgency in the competition gives me the focus, and you know later on it’s going to be a really good debate.” As referenced with ‘Debate US,’ a website outlining debate structures, many of the rebuttals and cross-examinations are going to be between 5-10 minutes, with very little preparation time. Lee also explained that a difficulty was the “subjectivity, because all the judges are different, and I received some contradictory feedback. It made me realize how subjective speech and debate is, and how important it is to find a style that relates and is approved by the largest margin of people.”

About a week after the competition, on Sunday, May 3, Deerfield’s Speech and Debate Program hosted a tournament where seventeen other schools came to compete. Dr. Houston, Language Teacher Matt Kutolowski, and History & Social Science Teacher John Leistler, the three coaches of the Speech and Debate Team, helped organize this competition, but the former two are both leaving this year, leaving next year’s program leaders up in the air. While Dr. Houston stressed his admiration and confidence in his debaters after the WSDC, he also expressed uncertainty at the future. In the end, he mentioned how “I can do everything to set the next person up for success, but it really comes down to the administration to make sure they give somebody the time and resources to continue the program. But I don’t know—time will tell.”