The Neenah Debate team is on track to send over 80 percent of its members to the state competition in West Bend this January.

“These kids have worked very hard to compete at the level necessary to participate in the state competition,” assistant coach Kaija Snyder said.

Neenah will have teams representing all three styles of debate at the state competition. 

The first style is policy.

Policy is a technical style of team debate with arguments being precise, evidence heavy and extremely fast, any slight mistake in this style could cost the round. Teams competing in this format have been known to speak as fast as “350 words per minute for eight minutes,” finds WIRED’s, Jay King. Neenah has a single team consisting of Alex Fahrenkrug, class of ‘22 and Arin Pitzrick, class of ‘21, they are like Bonnie and Clyde except instead of robbing banks they steal wins. This team has done well and earned its spot at state after just two tournaments.

The second style is what Neenah is known for — Lincoln-Douglas(LD).

LD is a philosophy intensive style of debate in which two debaters go head to head discussing what is right and wrong, and why, while still having a deep level of argumentation. Like a submarine, LD goes beneath the surface in order to get to the root of the issue. LD has been Neenah’s strongest style for the past five years having placed at state for the past two. The team consists of seven students, all of whom have qualified for state and is captained by Megan O’keefe, class of ‘21. 

The third style is Public Forum(P.F.)

P.F. is a more classroom style of debate based around a combination of evidence and philosophy, this style of team debate is conversational and accessible for most people. P.F. is like soccer because while there are technical terms and some fancy techniques it is very accessible and anyone can watch and follow it. P.F. is Neenah’s newest style and is co-captained by Austin Babbitt, class of ‘20, and Jacob Schwartz, class of ‘20, who are both going to state.

Neenah has found success across all three styles of debate, success that translates well to academic success, “[Debaters] also score better on ACT and SAT tests, get into better colleges, and perform better once in college,” reports The American Debate League. Demonstrating the academic discipline debaters need to succeed, debaters are trees, with their roots in knowledge and the fruits of their labor being good arguments.

Through constant honing of their skills, Neenah debate has shown they have what it takes to compete with the best of the best this January.