Recently, five members of the varsity squad of the Royals Debate Team went to Gainesville, Florida to compete in the Blue Key Debate Tournament with over 1,277 debaters.

The team competed in two different events. The first one was the Lincoln-Douglas debate, which consisted of the topic, “Resolved: The United Stated ought to eliminate subsides for fossil fuels.” Senior Isabella Perez participated in this one-on-one challenging debate. 

The second tournament was the Public Forum Debate, which consisted of the topic, “Resolved: The benefits of the United States federal government’s use of offensive cyber operations outweigh the harms.” The ILS Seniors, Catherine Medina and Cesar Camacho, competed in this two on two debate when they went up to Gainesville.

Mr. Moya and Mrs. Sosa are moderators for the Debate team and chaperoned the trip to Gainesville this year.

The debate team in ILS has two groups. The full team competes in Dade and Broward, and the Varsity team travels to tournaments in the country such as Harvard and UF. 

These tournaments are particularly hard for the debaters, since the competition is so large with over 110 schools competing. 

This year the debate team is looking forward to the state and national championship tournaments. The debate team discusses problems in the world that will only lead to a greater tomorrow. 

Mr. Moya, debate team leader, has coached the debate team for over 14 years, and has never lost his passion for teaching it.

“I’ve been blessed to work with the very best and the brightest that ILS has to offer,” said Mr. Moya. “Those are all skills and attributes that are as valuable in today’s world, as they have ever been in history. The best part of coaching debate for me, is that I know that the future is in good hands.”

The ILS community is proud to have a debate team that talks about issues that matter and we all hope they have a great year of debating.