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The 2020 varsity soccer season and homecoming festivities are only a few of the events that students have missed out on due to COVID-19. However, the Speech and Debate Team has been able to continue participating in practices and competition-only this year, it just looks drastically different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During a normal year the Harley Speech and Debate Team practices in-person 1 to 2 times a week, and competes on Saturdays at schools in the Rochester area. This year, the team will have to both practices and compete online. These changes have brought some thoughts related to the benefits and drawbacks of this year, and how they are making the best of it. Team coach, Sandy Foster, team captain, Hannah Snyder, and team members, Lily Meiring, Chuck Rutberg, and Cai Rogers, gave us their thoughts on the speech and debate environment this year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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How is this year\u2019s virtual comparable to last year\u2019s in-person experience? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Being new to the team, Cai explains that the virtual competition is interesting and while he\u2019d rather be in-person, online is all he knows right now. Chuck states, <\/span>\u201c<\/span>In-person is certainly much more fun and I do feel that we’re missing out a bit, but I feel that being online has not decreased the quality of the rounds themselves.\u201d In the same vein, Lily says that the adrenaline rush on the way to the competitions is missing, and the in-person atmosphere is irreplaceable. Mr.Foster agrees that the lack of human interaction is unfortunate and, from the perspective of a judge, it is difficult to see body language through a screen. Hannah also feels that being able to physically interact with people who share the same love for speech and debate is missing, and the team huddle\/pep talks are not the same.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Are you getting more out of Speech and Debate this year?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Chuck and Lily feel that they get less out of speech and debate this year, but both are still thankful that there is an opportunity to compete even if it\u2019s online. Cai is excited to start competing and get a chance to feel what it\u2019s like to get his brain working like it does during tournaments. Hannah explains, \u201cSpeech and debate is all about what you make out of it. While the in-person environment is irreplaceable and I miss what it used to be like, I don\u2019t believe the online environment detracts from the quality of debate and discourse that I love this activity for. COVID-19 is temporary, a passion isn\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Positive aspects of the online format?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Lily and Mr.Foster agree that it is amazing how innovative the speech and debate community is by transferring all tournaments to an online platform in one website. Mr.Foster further explains that this will benefit the team in the long-run because they can now participate in tournaments outside of our area opening an entire other avenue. Chuck and Hannah feel that being able to have the option to debate from home is nice sometimes, while Cai feels that it\u2019s a great way to keep everyone safe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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How is the Harley team environment different?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Lily and Mr.Foster both explain that the online format takes away from team bonding and togetherness. Last year the team often ate together during practice and spent time with<\/span><\/p>\n

each other during tournaments. <\/span>Chuck states, \u201c<\/span>I feel like less of a team because we aren’t<\/span> getting time together in person. Last year I really enjoyed our time together at meetings, meets,<\/span> and at Harvard.\u201d Hannah explains, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like gathering in a room after a tournament<\/span> with your teammates, talking about the round, laughing at jokes, and chasing after the metro at<\/span> Harvard while spilling hot coffee all over the place. These things just can\u2019t safely happen this<\/span> year and it\u2019s sad.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The 2020 varsity soccer season and homecoming festivities are only a few of the events that students have missed out on due to COVID-19. However, the Speech and Debate Team has been able to continue participating in practices and competition-only this year, it just looks drastically different.\u00a0 During a normal year the Harley Speech and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.harley.org\/thecomet20-21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}