Despite being the only policy debate team in the region, two Clovis North competitors’ desire to excel found them scraping together practice where they could — enough to earn them third place at this year’s state tournament.

The ranking comes as other Central Valley schools, including Bullard High School, also left their mark on state and national stages.

Clovis North junior Isabelle D’Mello said for her and her partner, Peyton Karpenko, a senior, advancing to the semifinal round at the California High School Speech Association State Championship in April was the culmination of three years of work together.

More than 60 teams competed in policy debate at the state championship. D’Mello and Karpenko both qualified the two previous years they competed.

“At those tournaments we hadn’t broken, but this tournament we ran a specific case that was kind of unique,” D’Mello said. “We had a lot of success at that tournament.”

In addition, Bullard High senior Navdeep Singh advanced to the finals in the poetry event at the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Richmond, Virginia, earning fourth place.

“Earning fourth place at the National Speech and Debate Tournament means more than a personal achievement to me,” Singh said. “It is an opportunity to represent the countless young people who face discrimination every day and remind them that their voice deserve to be heard exactly as it is.”

Clovis Debaters Cast Nationwide Net for Practice Partners

Years ago, policy debaters from Fresno and Clovis schools had plenty of competitors at local tournaments with whom they could hone their skills before going against the state’s best at the end of the school year. In the 1960s and ’70s, these local events were crammed with future lawyers, judges, CEOs, and politicians who regularly made their mark at the state and national levels. 

Differing from other formats, policy debate uses the same resolution all year long, meaning competitors spend months fine-tuning their debate plans, testing them against one another in the highly technical event.

It was that technical format that attracted them both to policy debate, Karpenko said.

In recent years, however, interest in the debate format locally has waned, with policy debate all but gone.

For the second year in a row, D’Mello and Karpenko found themselves alone in the league, struggling to test their plans — this year, an effort to bring more female scientists to Arctic research centers.

Finding competition took creativity. They focused on drills and prep work rather than practice rounds.

To get what practice rounds they could, the pair scoured email chains from past competitions, cold-calling other teams across the nation for practice, Karpenko said.

“We would kind of just email to reach out to other teams,” Karpenko said. “We did some debate rounds with people from Kentucky, just whoever we could find.”

Policy Debate Highly Competitive at Top Levels

Coaching policy debate can be intimidating for new teachers, said Clovis North Head Coach Chad Hayden. The 90-minute debate format gets very technical with a lot of debate theory, and he cites  that needed commitment to why the event has languished locally.

Debaters across the nation focus on the event year round, going to camps and competing in tournaments to develop arguments and evidence.

Often competitors will go against one another several times before competing at the state tournament.

“It has become so elite, and it’s just challenging,” Hayden said. “It’s so challenging at that top level, especially once you start getting into that circuit stuff.”

D’Mello and Karpenko competed in Long Beach and at UC Berkeley invitational tournaments where they had mixed results. However, the duo took the mediocre showings as motivation.

After their plan failed to get them the results they wanted, they changed it to one they were both passionate about — opening the doors for more women in science.

By the time the state tournament rolled around in April and the two students broke out of the preliminary rounds, they had made a name for themselves.

Hayden’s assistant coach reported to him hearing other competitors talking about how strong Karpenko and D’Mello were.

“It’s the best that we’ve ever done in debate at the state championships,” Hayden said. “And I’ve had some good teams over the years, but that was the best we’ve ever done.”

Karpenko will attend UC Irvine in the fall, majoring in political science.

Singh Comes to America, Takes 4th at Nationals

At Bullard High School’s 50th year at the national tournament in Richmond, Virginia, Singh made it to the final round, ultimately getting fourth place. Two of the seven judges awarded him first.

Singh competed against nearly 400 other competitors in the event that asks students to create a program of poems under a common theme.

As a recent immigrant from India, Singh focused on discrimination and maintaining cultural identity. He also competed in speech events in India before coming to the U.S.

“My speech was inspired by every child who has ever felt ashamed of the way they speak, the way they sound, or the culture they come from,” Singh told GV Wire. “As someone who has experienced those insecurities firsthand, I wanted to show that our differences are not obstacles; they are what make our voices powerful.”

Singh will attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the fall, majoring in engineering.

Other high placings include University High School student Tatiana Grumo taking fifth place at the California High School Speech Association State Championship in Original Prose & Poetry.