For nearly every activity imaginable, the most common strategy to encourage improvement is to practice, practice, practice. Just as athletes train for their sport and thespians rehearse for opening night, the debate team started the year by preparing for the upcoming debate season.

Four practice debates were held Aug. 16 after school and on the morning of Aug. 17. Staying true to the team’s motto of #nodaysoff, a total of 16 students debated in front of varsity and alumni debaters. With only two days of class under their belts, debaters had to rely on evidence the team gathered while attending various camps over the summer.

The season starts Sept. 21, meaning that there is little time for the debaters to  fully immerse themselves in this year’s topic of economic engagement with Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba. However,the purpose of these debates was to help give the team a solid head start.

“I think these debates were a good first step,” junior Lainey Schrag said. “Practice is the most important thing.”

The necessity of practice was something that debate coach Jared Zuckerman began to stress as early as the first day of school. In class he prompted students to set personal goals as well as goals for the team. He then encouraged debaters to sign up for the practice debates to act as a starting place for meeting their objectives.

Schrag’s goals this season include qualifying to the Debate Coaches Invitational tournament for the second time as well as “hopefully getting farther at State than I did last year.”

Even though practice makes perfect, Schrag said that there are some downsides to starting practices so early, such as creating more competition within the team to be on the varsity squad or make it to State.

However, the positives outweigh the negatives and Schrag said that the team overall will be better because of the dedication that they’ve shown so early in the season.