Dedicated Debaters: Sophomores Lucy Pace, Jaxson Terreros and Sophie Leonard’s love for debate motivates them to keep improving

After the rude awakening of her 5:30 a.m. alarm, sophomore Lucy Pace rolls out of bed and double checks that she has her Peach Green Tea Celsius and plenty of pens in her backpack for her varsity debate tournament. 

Pace hasn’t slept past 7 a.m. on a Saturday since August — her weekends have been filled with driving to Wichita, Kansas and Cedar Rapids, Iowa to argue her cases. But the feeling of winning a round makes the early wakeup calls and preparing with coaches before and after school worthwhile. 

“I just want to debate more,” Pace said. “I love it. And it’s worth it for me to be giving up my weekends to do it.” 

Pace doesn’t debate just out of love of spending 12 hours working on her affirmative cases and meeting up for debate team Panera dinners — she’s good at it too.

Pace is one of three sophomores on the varsity debate team this year, along with her partner Sophie Leonard and Jaxson Terreros. Being underclassmen, they’re using this debate season to work with coaches and each other in hopes to win more awards in the future.

Most sophomores compete in the open or junior varsity divisions, but after doing well in these divisions this year, Pace was moved up to the varsity team. Her win percentage is 60% — only 15% behind the average upperclassmen win percentage. She’s gotten used to the fast speaking and competitive judging in the varsity division, so she hopes to keep improving in the future. 

“It’s really rewarding when you win, but it’s also difficult to see other people that are the same age as me who are still doing competitively better,” Pace said. “Obviously I’m not the best debater out there, but success as a sophomore is fun, and watching other people succeed makes me want to work harder.”

The three of them, along with members of the junior varsity and open team, work on improving their skills with collegiate-level debaters. They work with assistant coaches in class and meet up outside of school too, hoping to prepare as much as possible before tournament weekends.

“You’re not going to get better if you don’t ask questions and research your topics thoroughly,” Terreros said. “I cannot reiterate that enough that that’s what makes you an effective debater. It’s knowing the arguments and doing outside research yourself and not just taking what’s given.”

In the next few years, the three of them aim to attend invite-only tournaments like the Tournament of Champions and place in state — qualifying them for nationals and getting themselves recognition in the debate world.

“I think we’re just more focusing on getting our names out there and getting judges and coaches and other teams to know who we are,” Pace said. “We’re also trying to just get better and do better tournaments and keep our momentum going in the future.”