"We Learn More from Our Failures than Wins!"
The North American Debate Circuit (NADC) is an online tournament circuit dedicated to creating a prestigious online community while removing financial and transportation barriers to accessibility. The NADC offers standardized, monthly tournaments to grow skills quickly and visibly and allows all entries to compete: school-affiliated, club-affiliated, and hybrid. Each tournament features a cash prize pool, as well as virtual badges for debaters’ profiles.
The Diamond Cup is a national online tournament hosted by the NADC on April 20th-21st. Divisions include Public Forum and Lincoln Douglas debate, as well as impromptu speech. The competition was open to middle school and high school teams across the country. Prizes included up to $1250 cash, as well as the opportunity to win an invitation to the NADC’s championship tournament in June.
Frank Shau and Srey Truong represented Independence High School at the Diamond Cup’s Public Forum Novice Division, while Chloe Truong and Ojas Ghandi (also from Independence High School) tackled the Public Forum Varsity Division. Rachel Zubrin hosted the IHS crew at the SVUDL officel.
Novice debater Chloe Truong was excited about the opportunity for learning afforded by the Diamond Cup. They noted, “Honestly this tournament was an amazing opportunity to fix and improve our team's flaws. Ojas and I not only gained the chance to scrutinize and perfect our weaknesses, but we also had the chance to train new members on our team. I am incredibly grateful to have such an amazing team that strives for progression. We used this tournament as an opportunity to experiment on different styles and ways to debate, and I am extremely happy about the results. I was able to work on certain weaknesses and improve them during this tournament. I especially appreciated the judges who all gave thorough feedback every round. Through this tournament our team learned that we learn more from our failures than wins. This topic was definitely a fun challenge, and I can't wait to start debating again in the upcoming season!”
Varsity debater Ojas Ghandi also appreciated the opportunity to dust off his skills and jump back into debate! They noted, “This tournament was an amazing opportunity for me to learn about competing at the varsity level, especially as I had not competed for almost half a year. Obviously, I was coming into it with a clear mind, and not expecting much, but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenges this tournament presented. I especially appreciated the feedback the judges provided, which helped me build new skills on-the-spot and gain new insight into debating better.”
On behalf of SVUDL, we would like to thank the NADC for waiving all entry fees and providing this opportunity for our students to grow in their debate skills from the comfort of their laptops!
