Debating Done Right

Every Wednesday evening, students across the Coast are joined together by a love of…mostly pleasant argument. Within our Somerset community, this group of students is incredibly gifted, eager and dedicated.

Somerset College is notorious for its success in the Gold Coast Debating Competition; however, it is undoubtable that students participate out of sheer adoration for the intellectual activity. None of this would be possible without the immense commitment by the parents and coaches. Special mention must go to Mrs Wheeler, Mr Henderson (JUN B), Ms Lee, Ms Hyman (JUN A), Ms Coombs, Dr Margerison (INTER B), Mrs Moore (SEN B), Mr Wrigley (OPEN A) and of course Mrs Hossy, our incredibly devoted and enthusiastic Debating co-ordinator.

In terms of performance, this year the Somerset debaters once again prevailed in 2018. There are two Open A teams, both of which fought admirably and made it to the latter stages of the competition with both teams competing in the Semi-Final. Following tough-fought debate, the Somerset 1 team succeeded with the negative side of the topic “Refugees Deserve Better from Us”, putting them in the final against St. Hilda’s at Bond University. Somerset 1 fought their most gruelling debate yet with the topic “We Most Condemn More and Understand Less”, in which they were the affirmative team.

Unfortunately, in their second and final year competing for the crown in the final, they were unable to win the chocolates on the night. However, the team consisting of Jason Zhang, Charlotte Roche, Olivia Hammond, Chloe Oxnard and Uni Kyeong remain as one of the strongest teams within Gold Coast Debating. The Somerset 2 team, which consisted of Kurt Grigic, Riley Cameron, Josh Hamlin, Jason Adams, Cian Muenster and Michael Guy, were labelled the ‘dark horse’ of the competition, as they had little experience before competing. They proved that experience does not guarantee success when they defeated the All Saints 1 team during the primary finals. It goes without saying that coach and mentor, Mr Wrigley, led both the Somerset Open A Debating teams into the Semi-Finals and without his guidance it remains unseen if either of the teams would have moved past the group stages.

Credit must also go towards Somerset 1 in the Junior B competition who managed to be the only Somerset team to win any division of the Gold Coast Debating Competition. During their first year of debating, they have fought hard and given their absolute best to each debate, which is evident in the successful result. The team consisted of Tanya Hsieh, Mian Huang, Victoria Huang and Isabella Seymour. Well done to them and we look forward to more success by these young debaters in the future.

We hope many of you participate in Debating in 2019, as it is an enjoyable co-curricular competition that is highly valued by both students and the wider community. We do not doubt that the 2019 season will be as successful as 2018, and the years preceding.