Over the weekend of Jan. 14 – 15, the BV West Debate Team attended the State Debate Competition at BV North. The team came away from the tournament with its first state title since the school’s opening. In the past, the team has finished second at the state tournament five times and third once.

In order to reach the state level the debaters had to qualify at the regional level. There are four regional contests for Division 6A in Kansas, each consisting of eight schools. The top two teams from each regional then move on to the state competition.

BV West took one four-speaker and four two-speaker teams to state. The four-speaker team placed first, and one of the two speaker teams finished second. A win at the state tournament is based on the collective records of all the teams involved.

The debate rounds are judged by volunteers from the community, many of whom have a background in debate as either high school or college debaters. The judges decide on a winner based on which team they believe made the better arguments.

The state tournament culminates the debate teams season, which was composed of close to seventy individual tournaments that took place nearly every Friday and Saturday of the first semester. The team had a very successful season, with all most all of the more than 100 debaters from BV West placing in at least one competition.

Mark Kapfer, BV West’s debate coach since the school opened, coached the debate team to their win this season. Kapfer will be retiring after this school year, and the team’s state championship finishes Mr. Kapfer’s long and successful career at BV West.