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The 36K Debaters of the Future reflected on their loss to 25R last week and shared their thoughts below:

Eric’s reflection:

My plan for the next debate is to come in strong and give good responses and if we do that, we will succeed. My regret is not coming strong like I use to do. My team has plans for the next round even if we win or lose. My thought is that we have to win to go into 3^rd place and never give up. Our last debate we didn’t get to practice a lot because of state testing, also we need to practice a lot more. We did do good, but everyone has their ups and downs.

 Andre’s reflection:

My name is Andre. I was on the champion debate team last year. This year we lost the debate that would have taken us to the finals. Now that we have had almost a week to get over our loss, my thoughts are that we lost, so what, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. The good thing is that at least we get to have another round before the year is out. We will be debating for 3^rd and it’s better than nothing as long as we are all still in the debate there is nothing to be upset about. We won many debates then lost one, so I can understand how you will be upset, but you have to think of the positives and forget about the negatives. We all need to remember that we are all in it together, everyone of us, no matter what happens, we will find a way to get through it and rise up again as champions. My only regret is that we didn’t win, but I have hope that the fight for third will be tremendous and victorious. Our plan for the next round is to improve and to do our best. I know we can do it, all we have to do is believe.

Zayvon’s reflection:

My thoughts for the debate are that I feel like it was my fault entirely. After being off the team for two debates for a few reasons, I ultimately failed to prove my worth to the team. I also feel that if I wasn’t there, the team would have won. I feel that the true reason that I made those mistakes is that we had almost no time to practice. I only have one regret that I didn’t try hard enough when my teammates stepped up to the plate and did great even with the fact that they had to deal with the state test. I was hoping that we wouldn’t lose even with my mistake. I’m not sure whether I should be on the team for the next round, but at least we can get third place and keep fighting the good fight.

Aleyah’s reflection:

You win some you lose some, but last week we lost for the first time and I felt upset, sad, and annoyed that we put so much hard work and effort into this debate team but come to find out we lost. The other team did better on some of the stuff we didn’t do so well on.  I’m not going to lie, we should have worked harder. I was so disappointed with myself because that was a big woops for me. You know losing isn’t always easy right? I have regrets yes. One of my deepest regrets was that some people were not always taking this team as seriously as I did. I think that people who do not put as much effort into this team and who do not show that they’re really willing to work hard shouldn’t be on the team. I felt upset because I really cared.

We should have worked so much harder! Like my teacher Ms. West says, you’ve got to “Push yourself.” All I can think of was doing better and accomplishing something. Thank you guys for giving us a chance to go on and trust me when I say we will make a comeback.

Stephen’s reflection:                                                                                                                      

My thoughts on the loss are that it is stupid to be angry. As one of the other losing teams said, we can’t let a score on a board determine how we feel, it’s your choice to be happy. Everyone I know on my team was devastated from our loss and crying but not me. Inside I was torn up, but I told myself to calm down and that you win some and you lose some. My plans for the next debate team are that I would be more persuasive by using better, if you will, higher class vocabulary. I will also read strong and hope that my speech is perfect.

Wali’s reflection:

My thoughts on the debate are that even though we lost, we still feel like we won. Next time we’re going to bring it all by studying more and backing up our answers stronger than before. We’re going to come up with even better questions and answers. My only regret is that we didn’t take it more serious during practice. Some of us were playing around and didn’t even care. Our plans for the next debate are bringing our all against the school. With better topic presentation and a stronger closing statement, were going to take 3^rd place because 1^st 2^nd or 3^rd, or even 4^th, we’re still going to be remembered for what we achieved.

My (teacher Micah’s) reflection on our loss last week:

What can I say? Losing stinks. This was an especially hard one because we have one of the larger teams in the district, and a lot of students had worked incredibly hard to earn their spots on that team. It’s really difficult to work towards a goal for the whole year, only to fall short in May.

That being said, our opponents (25R) were on point. They did everything right in the debate, and their team deserved the win. Good luck to them and 352X in the finals!

I started this week still feeling bad about the loss, but I got a nice surprise from one of our debaters at breakfast on Tuesday. He came in with a page full of notes for both the pro and con sides of the final topic! (which I had not asked for). He said, “We got to get ready for our next round right? Our year’s not over yet.” His initiative reminded me of what’s important, every round is a learning experience, and you keep moving forward. 369K, get ready, we’re coming for you!