In its inaugural season, the Blue Valley Southwest varsity debate team brought home the 5A 4-Speaker Debate State Championship title. The State team consisted of juniors Lauren Arney, Pavan Kota, Ross Marine and Swini Tummula and freshman Tristan Locke.

The victory came over six-year reigning champions, Blue Valley High School.

Varsity debater Lauren Arney, who debated for two years at Blue Valley, said it was strange to go against her former teammates.

“Winning was even better because of who we beat,” she said. “We beat a rival, and that made it sweeter. We broke a huge streak of Blue Valley championships.”

For coach Jared Zuckerman, the best part of winning State was the feedback they received from the school and the assembly dedicated to the students.

“There are a lot of people who don’t know what we do, which is fine, but that’s another reason these kids should take pride in it,” he said. “When you see the students, see the teachers, see the administrators celebrate it, it helps them see how important they are to the school.”

Tristan Locke had a very successful first season, winning both Novice and Varsity State championships, a first for the state of Kansas.

“Mr. Zuckerman is a good coach, but a lot of what I learned came from the older kids,” he said. “They showed me how the different parts of debate work and they kind of guided me through. They’re also a huge part of the success I had at Novice. I know for a fact we wouldn’t have won Novice State without some of the things I learned at Regionals with Pavan.”

Arney, who debated at the junior varsity level last year, is amazed at what a difference a year can make.

“The hardest part of this season was definitely making the jump from junior varsity to varsity,” she said. “We got beaten so much in the first three tournaments. Right about then, everyone who thought they had it together realized that they didn’t, and we all started working harder. It was hard not seeing us do well. But it’s crazy that I went from being a junior varsity debater to winning State.”

Losses early in the season gave the team motivation that couldn’t have been achieved any other way.

“Early on, we lost to our rivals – Blue Valley,” Zuckerman said. “We keep the ballot sheet from the judges pinned up on the board. No one is allowed to take it down and it never comes down. It reminds us why we need to work hard.”

Zuckerman said there was nothing at State the team wasn’t ready for.

“Going in, we knew that we weren’t the best team,” he said. “We accepted that, and decided to compensate for it by being more prepared than anyone else.”

Zuckerman’s expectations for the team were that they did all that they could to prepare.

“Mr. Zuckerman put in a lot of work for us,” Arney said. “He really wanted to start the program out on the right foot, so he put in a lot of time and asked that that was reciprocated from us.”

Debate, said Zuckerman, is hard because you can’t control the results.

“There’s a random guy in the back of the room who controls the outcome,” he said. “As a debater, there’s nothing you can do about the judge. But what you can control is your level of preparation.”

The unpredictable nature of debate makes the win more meaningful for the team.

“This season, we were rewarded for our work,” Zuckerman said. “But next year, who knows? There’s no guarantee we’ll be rewarded again. There’s no guarantee we’ll ever get this again. We might go 50 years without winning a State title again, and that makes this year even more special.”

The State tournament, which lasts two days, invoked nerves in some competitors, but Locke stayed calm.

“During the round itself, I wasn’t nervous,” he said. “I was just focused on giving a good speech and making all of my arguments.”

Staying calm, said Zuckerman, is a very important quality in a debater.

“I think that the Blue Valley team was a lot more emotional, and that cost them,” he said. “You can’t just have experience in order to win. You need composure. You can’t teach composure, and we had it when it mattered most.”

After a final trip into the ballot room, where scores are kept, Zuckerman told the team that they had won.

“At that point, everyone got crazy, crazy excited,” Arney said. “Everyone was hugging each other. I still can’t even believe what happened. At the time, I couldn’t even describe how I was feeling.”

The most important thing for Zuckerman is that he helps his students reach their full potential.

“Most of my kids can say that they don’t have any regrets,” he said. “It’s amazing what can happen when you really dedicate yourself to try to be the very best at something, and it’s fun to be able to say you did it.”