By: Lizzy Lavin –
Southeast held the annual debate tournament Saturday, February 11. Debate teams around Nebraska came to LSE as our own debate team hosted the event. One of the many debaters on the Southeast team that helped Saturday is junior Ariana Leybold.
“[The debate tournament] is something that happens every year, and there is a lot of planning involved,” said Leybold.
This is now Leybold’s second year and she is in congressional debate. She speaks on behalf of the debate team that hosting the annual tournament can be stressful.
“The week before the debate tournament, each day of the week we do a different task,” said Leybold. “We talk about which person does what job.”
One of the more not-so-ordinary tasks taken on by hosting the tournament is having the team go down to the local HyVee and fill shopping carts with food and snacks to sell at the tournament. Ideally the profit made on selling the snacks is what funds the tournament.
“We have to plan how the day is going to turn out, because if we make one little slip up the whole tournament could go bad,” said Leybold. “We have to keep track of everything we do and make sure everyone does the right job.”
Going into Saturday, the LSE debate team had to be at the tournament from 7 am to 10 pm. As a whole, their feelings were looking forward to a long stress filled day.
“[Personally my mindset] was to get into [the tournament], do a good job, make everyone feel welcomed at Southeast,” said Leybold.” It’s about representing Southeast as a school, and to let people know we are a friendly environment and we care about debate a lot.”
Beyond the tournament, debate means something more than just constructing well articulated and respectable arguments. Not everyone would choose to be at school on a Saturday for more than 12 hours.
“Debate definitely changed my life. It gave me a place in Southeast,” said Leybold. “Without debate I wouldn’t be who I am today. It makes you think about the world in a different way and I owe debate to giving me happiness and finding my place in the world.”
