The Winter Olympics are taking place right now, but it is not just athletes who are practicing to do their best to compete. Just ask Benicia High School’s Debate Team.

The team will be taking part in the Golden Gate Speech Association’s State Qualifiers at James Logan High School in Union City on Sunday, March 3. To raise money for participation in the event, the team will be hosting a Debate Night at BHS this Friday.

The Debate Team’s competitions are another step forward for Benicia High’s growing speech and debate program, which started as a class taught by Michele Gaines last year and spun off a student club which hosted a series of lunchtime debates known as Debate Week.

Rayna Fitzgerald, a senior, said she was recruited by then-club leader Timothy Knox for Debate Week. Fitzgerald had participated in in-class debates during Gaines’ Advanced Placement Language and Composition class, but she had never officially debated before that.

“It was my first time debating in front of a more public audience,” she said. “I really ended up enjoying it. I would say it’s transformed into one of my passions.”

Senior Morgan Bundy was also introduced to public speech through Gaines’ AP Lang class, then took part in the lunchtime debates and is now in the speech and debate class.

“I’ve always been opinionated, but I’ve never been able to formally debate issues,” she said. “That’s why I thought the speech and debate class would be interesting.”

Senior Juan Salinas was also recruited by Knox to debate. He felt his first debate was not very strong, but he liked the idea of doing research on issues and being able to speak in front of an audience.

“I like speaking, so the ability to talk in front of an audience is really fun for me,” he said. “I like arguing different points when I have the information, and I like speaking in general.”

The lunchtime debates were a success, which resulted in the team taking part in competitive debates this year. On Jan. 20, the team competed at the regional Public Forum Debate Tournament at San Marin High School in Novato. Benicia’s teams ended up doing really well, with two teams winning all three of their debate rounds and two winning two out of their three rounds, bringing the team’s record to 10-2.

“It was a good showing,” Gaines said. “Everybody came home with a trophy.”

The team will next move on to the State Qualifiers, but before they can go, they will host a Debate Night on campus to raise funds for the trip. The event will consist of eight students— Fitzgerald, Bundy, Salinas, Cheuk Ling, Karah Fisher, Ethan Legro, Upraj Singh, and Katya Willis—debating on two topics. The first topic deals with whether the Authorization for Use of Military Force gives too much power to the president. The second concerns a much-debated topic from the previous year over whether or not BHS should adopt new graduation requirements consistent with the A-G requirements of UCs. Two students will be assigned to a pro or con side on one of the issues. However, Gaines said they will not know until that night which side they will be arguing.

“It’s the type of debate where they have to have both sides prepped, and then you flip a coin,” she said. “You have to look at the other side because you don’t know which side you’ll be arguing.”

The event will also feature opening remarks by Tim Grayson, Benicia’s representative in the California State Assembly. Gaines said Grayson was recruited by Knox, an alum attending Solano Community College who also serves as the team’s coach.

“A couple weeks ago he was in Benicia taking to constituents so I asked him if he’d be interested in speaking at Benicia,” Knox said. “I was given the number of his scheduler and we proceeded from there.”

The team feels speech and debate provides a lot of important life skills. For Ling, it provides an opportunity to do research to back up how one feels about a topic.

“It’s a good feeling to think about a situation from both sides,” he said. “It really makes you find your true stance on a subject when you are forced to argue from both sides.”

Salinas said the importance is being able to work on a team to present solid arguments.

“I’m not just giving Cheuk all the work,” he said. “I’m also researching as well. Whatever he does, I learn so that I also know what page he’s on.”

As Gaines describes it, one student presents their argument while the other serves as “the tiger” to attack the opposing side’s argument.

“You want someone who’s put together that argument as airtight as possible to open and then their partner comes in and starts doing the tussling back and forth,” she said.

Gaines said students can gain a lot of skills from the class and team, including public confidence, building substantive arguments and being able to detect biases.

“In the spirit of what the Common Core is after— which is better thinking, deeper thinking, more reasonable thinking– that’s what’s happening,” she said. “When you see students continue to pursue that in these various courses and experiences you have in speech and debate, you start seeing them blossom. It’s more than confidence, it’s intellectual ability.”

Debate Night will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16 in Benicia High’s Performing Arts Building. Grayson will deliver opening remarks, and students Matthew Gouyer and Liam Madigan will moderate. The event is open to the public. For more information, visit bhs.beniciaunified.org.