Research. Read. Write. Present. Win. Repeat.

The extracurricular life of debater can be described as a cycle of intense work, revolving around academic material not typically taught in school. Being a Cresskill debater means having hours of your life and weekends spent poring over endless pages of expository articles as well as documents laced with statistical or scholarly jargon. It takes dedication and passion to be a debater, with your nights devoted to comprehending some of the more precarious government policies and constitutional limits. Determination and courage are not required, but those traits will undoubtedly be developed after countless days of having to withstand and confront ruthless verbal arguments.

No one can deny that debating is an extracurricular activity that takes even more than blood, sweat, and tears to be victorious. And no debaters will ever deny the fact that, in the end, the grueling work is entirely worth it. Especially now, considering the team’s impassible record of success this debate season. The hard labor the debaters have put into their speeches and research seems to be rewarding. Senior debater Pooja Balar echoes this sentiment, stating “it was nice all of [their] efforts [paid] off.”

In just the three debates that they have participated in, Cresskill debaters have brought home awards for every single debate. In the first debate, the team received Third Place Speaker, Second Place Speaker, and Second Place Team with debaters Pooja Balar and Samantha Higgins. The second debate followed with similar success as debaters Isabella Jiang and Haeun Park won the Third Place Team. The most recent debate brought Cresskill another Third Place Team trophy through debaters Chase Barnett and Ryan Distell.

On the team’s impeccable record, debate coach Mr. Metz is confident that it can be maintained: “the teams are great lead by the seniors, they’re unbelievable this year… This season has a lot of enthusiasm [with a] debate topic [about Education in United States] that is so rich and relevant.”

With high spirits and a strong morale, the debate team approaches their upcoming competition with determination and eagerness. Their track record suggests that they will have no problem succeeding from their same old tricks: hard work, practice, and teamwork.