At their final debate on February 28th at Leonia High School, the debate team finished their season on a high note.

Advisor Sra. Rabelo feels that “so many of the team members have worked so hard.” She says they were “so lucky to have a president and vice president that really try to lead our team.” Rabelo is extremely proud of the team, especially how far the underclassmen have come while competing on varsity. Rabelo is very “excited to see where [the sophomores and juniors] that are on varsity will go next year or even as seniors.”

Senior Vice President Jane Kim agrees that the underclassmen “already have so much experience and it really just makes me hopeful for the future of our debate team.” Along with the outstanding underclassmen, Kim and senior President Craig Schulman had an impressive run this year finishing with a 20-4 record, making them the third place team in the county. Not only do they excel at the podium, Kim and Schulman are team leaders and “are always trying to motivate everyone and give them pep talks,” said Rabelo. Kim feels that the team grew a lot just during this year alone, stating that the team “had a slow start, but the whole team is just so determined and passionate that we all immediately got focused and started going towards the goals we set.”

Many of the NVOT judges also performed highly throughout the season. Because of this, Kim believes that there “became a really high standard for other judges in the county and for our future judges.”

As of right now, the team is already preparing for next year’s season. The incoming team now has to prepare for immigration as next year’s resolve.

Kim can “see in the next years that with the underclassmen leading this team that OT is going to be one of those names that debaters get scared [of] when they realize they’re going against an OT team,” With the commencement of the incoming season next year, Kim said, “We know for sure that the team will be in good hands.”