Debate Team

About the O'Dowd Debate Team

The Bishop O’Dowd Debate Team was founded in October 2007 and is currently the number one ranked parliamentary debate team in the Golden Gate Speech Association. The Golden Gate Speech Association is the number one ranked speech and debate league in California and is ranked top-ten in the nation. The debate team is seeking students to the join the novice and junior varsity divisions. No experience, but a good deal of enthusiasm, is necessary.

TheDebate Team is supported by the Forensics Competitive Team Fund. Donations may be made online on the O’Dowd website by putting the Fund’s name in the “comments box” under “endowment fund.”

O’Dowd Debate Announces Tryouts for 2010 - 2011 Team

O’Dowd Debate is holding tryouts for the 2010 - 2011 debate season.

Freshman only tryouts will be held in room 119 on Friday, September 3, during MP and after school (if necessary).

Open tryouts for the Junior Varsity and Varsity squads will be held in room 119 on September 7 and 9 at 3:15 p.m.

In less than three years since its founding, O’Dowd Debate’s parliamentary debate team has established itself as one of California’s elite programs.  O’Dowd Debate is currently ranked #1 in the region and #2 in the state.

O’Dowd Debate’s senior duo of Carey Appeldorn and Kate Drew won the 2009 - 2010 state title and finished the 2009 - 2010 season ranked #1 in California.  The duo of senior Miles Pember and junior Becky Vastola completed the season ranked #11 in the state.

In addition to league tournaments, O’Dowd Debate competed in the Stanford University Invitational, Pepperdine University Invitational, and Santa Clara University Invitational.  O’Dowd Debate teams finished as quarterfinalists at Stanford, quarterfinalists and second place at Pepperdine, and quarterfinalists and champions at Santa Clara.

This year O’Dowd Debate will be fielding squads in parliamentary debate, public forum debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and individual events.

O’Dowd Debate competes in the Golden Gate Speech Association, California’s #1 ranked high school speech and debate league.

For more information, please contact team captain Becky Vastola, ’11 or coach Jon Thorpe.

Bishop O'Dowd High Wins State Title

April 20, 2010 - Bishop O*Dowd High School's extraordinary parliamentary debate team of Carey Appeldorn & Kate Drew won the state title last Sunday evening by defeating Granite Bay High School debaters Matt O'Brien & Gary Nielsen in the final round of the April 16-18 California High School Speech Association State Championship Tournament hosted by Bakersfield College. Appeldorn & Drew debated the affirmative side of the resolution "this house believes the United States should make all aid to Israel conditional on freezing settlements" and took the final round on a 5-2 ballot from the panel of seven judges.

The final stretch of road to the state title was arduous. During February and March over 350 teams from California's 11 speech and debate leagues across the state competed in their respective state qualifying tournaments for the coveted 32 parliamentary debate state tournament slots. Just two weeks prior to the California State Tournament, Appeldorn & Drew locked up with seventeen of the state's elite parliamentary debate teams and won O'Dowd the California Cup by defeating James Logan High School's superb team of Ben Mabie & Niraj Asthana on a 4-1 ballot. At the state tournament, Appeldorn & Drew came roaring out of the gates and opened up with a 4-0 record before falling to the Bentley High School powerhouse team of Annie McKenna & Logan Brog in the final preliminary round. However, Appeldorn & Drew's strong performance in the prelims afforded them an automatic bye into the tournament's semifinal round where the duo defeated La Costa Canyon High School debaters Brian Castelloe & Reza Zomorrodian in a debate focused on China's potential to become the 21st century*s dominant superpower.

During this 2009-2010 debate season, Appeldorn & Drew achieved significant milestones for Bishop O'Dowd High School. The duo's December triumph at the Santa Clara University Invitational marked the first major speech and debate victory in Bishop O'Dowd High School history. The duo followed up Santa Clara by placing second at the Pepperdine University Invitational and finishing in the quarterfinals of the Stanford University Invitational before their impressive string of first-place finishes in the Golden Gate Speech Association (GGSA) State Qualifying Tournament, the California Cup, and the State Championship Tournament. The duo's victory in Bakersfield also marks the GGSA's first parliamentary debate state title.

Appeldorn & Drew concluded the 2009-2010 debate season as the #1 ranked team in the state and finished with an overall record of 50-7-1.

Overall, O*Dowd Debate's parliamentary debate program is ranked #1 in the Golden Gate Speech Association and #2 in the state.

Appeldorn & Drew's victory in Bakersfield is the second state title in Bishop O'Dowd High School history and was achieved less than three years after the debate program's founding.

Debate News - Jan. 25, 2010
O’Dowd Debate Takes Second-Place at Pepperdine University Invitational

Last weekend the O’Dowd Debate varsity squad traveled to Malibu, California to compete in the Pepperdine University Invitational. O’Dowd fielded four teams at the three day warm-up to the upcoming Stanford University Invitational and against twenty-nine other teams representing predominantly Southern Californian parochial schools.

O’Dowd had two teams advance to the tournament’s elimination rounds: Rebecca Vastola/Miles Pember and Carey Appeldorn/Kate Drew. Pember/Vastola was defeated in the tournament's quarterfinal round while O'Dowd's powerhouse combination of Appeldorn/Drew reached the final round for the second tournament in a row. Appeldorn/Drew was bested in the final by North Hollywood's Campbell Hall High School in a highly contentious debate on reducing U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan. Appeldorn/Drew’s second-place finish pushed the pair to the #2 ranking in California, within striking distance of James Logan’s Niraj Asthana & Ben Mabie.

In additional debate news, the junior varsity and novices squads had a strong showing at the Golden Gate Speech Association Tournament #3 at San Francisco's Lowell High School with Julia Owens/Olivia Seideman taking second place in novice parliamentary debate. In junior varsity competition the teams of Henry Zaballos/E.J. Walls and Thomas Parros/Jordan Gorenberg took second place in junior varsity parliamentary debate while the sensational sophomore duo of Celina Reynes and Natasha Anderson secured a first place junior varsity trophy for O'Dowd. O’Dowd Debate was resurrected in 2007 after decades of dormancy. The varsity squad competes in college tournaments throughout the state and the team of Appeldorn/Drew secured a historic victory for O'Dowd this academic year by winning the prestigious Santa Clara University Invitational. O’Dowd Debate competes in the Golden Gate Speech Association and fields squads in novice, junior varsity, and varsity debate at the four Golden Gates Speech Association tournaments.

The Golden Gate Speech Association is the #1 ranked high school debate league in California. O’Dowd Debate is coached by history teacher Jon Thorpe.

Debate News - Dec. 15, 2009
Bishop O'Dowd Debate Wins the Santa Clara University Invitational

A few minutes before the stroke of midnight last Sunday night seniors Carey Appeldorn and Kate Drew secured the first debate victory at a major tournament for Bishop O'Dowd High School. The duo defeated the team of Jason Alafgani and Jason Qiu, representing San Franciscos Lowell High School, in the final round of the prestigious Dempsey-Cronin Invitational hosted by Santa Clara University.

The grueling three day tournament saw 55 parliamentary debate teams from all across California clash in six preliminary debate rounds. The preliminary rounds, lasting from Friday evening to Sunday morning, seed the sixteen teams selected to advance to the tournaments four elimination rounds. Bishop O'Dowd, Saratoga, and Lowell were the only high schools to have two teams break into the elimination rounds. The team of Appeldorn and Drew was seeded fifth after posting a 5 - 1 record during the preliminaries and the team of junior Becky Vastola and senior Miles Pember was seeded sixth after also posting a strong 5 - 1 record.

In the elimination rounds Vastola-Pember was defeated in the quarterfinals by Lodi High School on a split decision. Appeldorn-Drew defeated Saratoga in the octo round and Sacramentos Mira Loma High School in the quarterfinal round. The duo advanced to the final round after defeating Saratogas remaining team in a hotly contested match in the semifinals.

At 10:30 p.m. Sunday night only two of the 55 teams remained. Lowells Alafgani-Qui, representing the government, supported the resolution marijuana laws are fair and linked the resolution as applying only to the government and citizens of the Netherlands. Appeldorn-Drew, representing the opposition, countered the argument by utilizing a combination of social contract theory and current Dutch drug laws and also challenged the legitimacy of the legal interpretation of the word fair advanced by the government team. At the conclusion of a very spirited debate, the three judges voted unanimously that Appeldorn-Drew had successfully cast doubt on fairness of the Netherlands marijuana laws and declared Bishop O'Dowd tournament victors.

Overall, the entire O'Dowd squad performed very well at the tournament. The teams of junior Peter Counts and senior Molly Montgomery, seniors Marina Chrys and Dominic Gould, and seniors Wolfgang Alders and Nathan Ma helped O'Dowd post and overall record of 20 - 10 during the preliminary rounds. No O'Dowd team ended the tournament with a losing record.

The Bishop O'Dowd Debate Team was founded in October 2007. In its short two year history, the team has made a significant mark on regional high school debate. The team is currently ranked #2 in the Golden Gate Speech Association, the top-ranked high school debate league in California.

The Bishop O'Dowd Debate Team is coached by history teacher Jon Thorpe.

Debate News - Nov. 15, 2009

The O'Dowd Debate Team turned in another sterling performanceon Nov.15that league tournament #2 hosted by the Golden Gate Speech Association at Santa Rosa Junior College. Julia Owens and Olivia Seideman took second place in the novice division with Thomas Parros and Jordan Gorenberg taking first place in their debate debute. In junior varsity the team of Celina Reynes and Natasha Anderson took second place while the power duo of Marina Chrys and Dominic Gould took their second straight first place trophy. In varsity three O'Dowd teams brought back second place trophies: Vastola/Pember, Alders/Ma, and Montgomery/Du. All in all a great show. Next stops are Santa Clara University in December and Malibu in January.

Bishop O’Dowd Parliamentary Debate Team Opens Season Strong

DANVILLE -- The #2 ranked Bishop O’Dowd Parliamentary Debate Team opened the Golden Gate Speech Association (GGSA) tournament season with an exceptionally strong performance at San Ramon Valley High School last Sunday and returned to O’Dowd with a slew of first and second place trophies. Over six hundred debaters from twenty-seven Bay Area high schools descended into the Diablo Valley, marking the tournament as the largest in GGSA history.

O’Dowd debaters covered a multiplicity of topics over four rigorous rounds and debated issues ranging from the damaging effects of materialism in American society to President Obama’s recent announcement to do away with the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy. At the conclusion of the eight hour tournament, the Bishop O’Dowd Parliamentary Debate Team clearly demonstrated why it has secured a place amongst the elite in California’s most competitive debate league.

In novice parliamentary debate, the teams of Celina Reynes/Natasha Anderson and Kevin Daley/Peter Counts scored second place trophies. In junior varsity parliamentary debate the team of Dominic Gould/Marina Chrys took second place while the team of Tenaya Izu/Ellen Myers secured first place for O’Dowd. In the extremely competitive 50 team field of varsity debaters, the teams of Rebecca Vastola/Miles Pember and Wolfgang Alders/Nathan Ma finished second while the duo of Carey Appeldorn/Kate Drew brought back a coveted first place trophy to O’Dowd.

Debate Coach Jon Thorpe is not surprised by the team’s rapid rise in the Bay Area’s high school debate community. "It’s not me, but the students who are really in charge of this thing," Mr. Thorpe explained. "I enjoy putting the pieces together, but to be honest, it’s the team that has taken complete ownership of its own success. They work unbelievably hard. They coach one another, critique one another, and the veteran debaters instruct and work with the novice debaters. And in the process, the debate team has created its own unique culture, its own sense of community. We’re such a young program, but when I think about what the students have accomplished in less than three years, I’m in awe of them."

The GGSA is the #1 ranked high school debate league in California and is ranked amongst the top-ten in the nation. The next GGSA tournament will be held at Santa Rosa Junior College on November 15 with the GGSA tournament season running until March 2010. In addition to its regular league tournament schedule, the Bishop O’Dowd Parliamentary Debate Team will be competing at tournaments hosted by Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and Pepperdine University.

For more information on the Bishop O’Dowd Parliamentary Debate Team, please contact Coach Jon Thorpe at jthorpe@bishopodowd.org.