By Tessa Faust
The Debate Team’s season is kicking off to a great start. The first tournament which was the Lincoln Southwest Silver Talon Debate Tournament went well. Lincoln High took third place beating 12 other teams for the spot. James Rehwaldt-Alexander and Daniel Witte took First Place in the Varsity Policy Division and six speaker awards were awarded to the team. The new coach is English teacher Jill Livingston. She previously coached three years at Fremont before coming to Lincoln High. “So she has lots of experience and she’s so dedicated to what she does,” junior Caleb Martin said. “This year we have so many novices, so many new people who joined,” Ryan McManaman said. “This year we just took all newcomers and we made them feel welcomed.” Livingston put the word out and has had meetings, and she is also talking about it in her classes. and encouraging those who she sees to have great talent with skills you need to be a great debater. Some examples she said are a hard work ethic, the way their brain thinks, enjoy talking about philosophy, or if they’ve got a strong point of view and are able to support it with facts. The students have worked really hard to recruit. In the beginning of the school year, they went around to different classes and encouraged people to join the activity. “I think that once people come and start coming to practice they see what a family they are, and people want to be part of that community aspect in debate. I want to continue to cultivate that community that they’ve already established,” Livingston said.