COMMAND PERFORMANCE – Colin Aldassy delivers a speech on ants Saturday night at the Sitka Performing Arts Center during the Region V Drama, Debate Forensics awards ceremony.
The Haines Glacier Bards competed at a regional meet in Sitka last weekend where its first debate team in recent memory won a debate against seniors.
“Despite never having active debate experience they managed to win one of their debates even though they were up against a seasoned team of seniors,” Bards coach Hannah Bochart said of freshmen Selby Long and Willa Stuart.
Bochart said both girls expressed interest in debating for the Bards.
“They came to us saying this is what we want to do,” she said “It was really refreshing to have two freshmen come to me and say they wanted to debate.”
The girls debated the resolution that Turkey is beneficial to NATO. The teams are given topics to prepare for in advance. Debaters must be prepared to defend both sides of a topic, which forces them to better understand the nuance and complexity of issues, Bochart said.
“They walk into a room, flip a coin and decide who’s going in the affirmative,” she said.
“I think they, and I, learned a lot about preparation, how to organize your evidence.”
Freshman Colin Aldassy made it to the final round in all of his events and earned command performance for a 10-minute informational speech about ants titled “World War Ant.”
“It was super entertaining and a real crowd pleaser,” Bochart said. “He’s an ant fanatic. He loves ants.”
Aldassy also took sixth place for a humorous interpretation. Selby took fifth place in solo acting. Aldassy and Stuart took fourth in duet acting.
The team faced off against Sitka High School, Mount Edgecumbe, Thunder Mountain, Ketchikan, Skagway and Metlakatla. It was only their second competition of the year as the lack of ferry service, pandemic issues and low turnout prevented travel and participation.
The team will compete at the state competition Feb. 17-19.