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Payton Debate Team Makes History
This past weekend the Payton debate team of Lee Reed III and John Trevino finished in a tie for third at the IHSA Illinois State Varsity Debate
Championships. In addition, both Lee and John were voted onto the 10-person All-State Debate Team.
The significance of this achievement cannot be overstated. Lee and John become the first CPS team EVER to qualify for the playoffs
(i.e., top 8 finishers) at an Illinois state varsity championship tournament. And they not only qualified, they advanced to the semifinals!
Lee became the second CPS debater to place on the All-State Team last year; John just became the third this year.
All-in-all a landmark achievement that evoked special congratulations from almost every other coach at the tournament.
To put this achievement in perspective, Illinois is normally one of the four most competitive states in the U.S. for policy debate each year.
(The others are Georgia, Texas, and California.) Several Illinois schools are perennial competitors for, and frequent winners of, the various national
championship tournaments. The North Shore teams (Glenbrook North, Glenbrook South, and sometimes New Trier) have historically made the Illinois State
title their personal possession, preparing for weeks ahead specifically to win this showdown for Illinois bragging rights. They invent "secret"
arguments simply designed to surprise and beat specific other teams. (Yes, they had prepared arguments specifically for use against Lee and John.)
And the junior team members stay up all night during the tournament to prepare additional arguments for use against the leading teams.
In this particular tournament, no CPS team had ever qualified among the top 8 after the preliminary debates. The tournament leaders are normally
dominated by the top teams from the Glenbrooks and New Trier, with an occasional Maine East, Oak Park or Homewood Flossmoor thrown into the mix.
So other CPS coaches feel that the Payton achievement marks a new high water mark in CPS debate competitiveness, and confirms that some CPS teams can
aspire to national level skill. Even the non-CPS coaches admire that Payton has achieved a level that some of them rarely reach. This is why several
other coaches took special effort to congratulate Payton on being edged out by Glenbrook South's best team only in a final, well-argued contest.
Lee and John are now pointing toward the national Tournament of Champions on May 3-5. Meanwhile they have set a challenging target for our strong
cadre of underclass debaters to match (and surpass?) next year.
Congratulations to them for a landmark performance at the IHSA Illinois State Varsity Championships!!!!!
Dick Sullivan
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