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‘It’s all about adapting’: Newport Beach teen encourages other students to try out debate

Tegan Wright, 14,  recently won first place in her last debate tournament.
Tegan Wright, 14, an eighth-grader from the Pegasus School in Huntington Beach, recently won first place in her last debate tournament.
(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)
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Tegan Wright doesn’t really use filler words.

She answers each question with the ease of a professional: spelling out her name, giving her age, saying what school she attends, her grade and how she came to her love of the craft, debating.

But maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that she’s a member of the team, Pegasus School of Huntington Beach, that won first place at the Orange County Debate League Middle School Winter Classic last month.

Tegan, 14, joked she couldn’t really remember off the top of her head what they were arguing during that competition; it might have been whether or not the U.S. should boycott the 2022 Beijing Olympics or if sleeping in public should be decriminalized. She’s already moved onto the next set of research and debate topics for their next event.

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Tegan said her primary focus is on parliamentary debate, a form of debate that utilizes two teams that argue the pros or cons of a topic. She is the third speaker and wraps up the team’s arguments or does what she says is “weighing the argument,” in debate jargon.

“I began debate in the fifth grade. I had always been interested in arguing and kind of being able to prove that I was right,” Tegan said with a laugh. “I heard a lot of my classmates were taking the class. I decided, ‘Hey, why not?’ and I immediately fell in love with debate and knew it was something I wanted to pursue in middle school and into high school.”

Some students take time to assess where their skills help them fit best on a debate team. But Tegan said she’s always been the third speaker and settled into the role pretty quickly.

This is her fourth year of competing, though it is her third with Pegasus School debate teacher Josh Thimons.

“She’s grown a tremendous amount,” said Thimons. “She’s always been a bright student; but when we started three years ago, she didn’t have confidence in her communication abilities. I think her greatest area of growth has been in confidence and communicating and expressing her ideas. It’s a testament to all her hard work.”

Thimons noted Tegan has participated in summer workshops to improve her debating skills, though she says that additional effort is just all a part of what debate is and what it means to her.

She said finds herself often spending hours on video calls with her teammates to write their cases, research and prepare evidence for their tournaments. This work is on top of the elective debate class she takes. She notes that tournaments are all-day affairs.

Passport to Learning, put on by the Laguna Beach Early Learning Community Task Force, takes aim at assisting with child development and preparing young kids for life in the classroom.

March 11, 2022

“It really depends on the topics, but I’d say it’s numerous nights of multiple hours of preparation. It’s really just about getting your work done, utilizing the class time you have. You just have to make things work. We know our deadlines. Our coach is really good about setting the deadlines,” said Tegan.

The Orange County Debate League Middle School Winter Classic was held online in light of the Omicron surge of the coronavirus, though it wasn’t the first time that Tegan and her peers have competed online.

Thimons said the majority of their tournaments this year have been held in-person, save for the Winter Classic, but the last two years have been a mix of online and offline.

“A lot of [debate] is about your presentation and eye contact and hand motions and how much you convey yourself to a judge and that’s a lot harder to do when you’re speaking to a screen … I think we made it work,” said Tegan. “There’s a silver lining to that as well. We normally have to use paper notes and can only take in a certain amount, but online our league allowed us to have more preparation.

“I was able to use the situation … to best help my abilities as a speaker. It’s all about adapting.”

Tegan said she plans on continuing debate in high school, even though she expects to be living in Colorado instead of California when the time comes. She said she hopes to encourage more young women to try out debate and give it a shot as she watches her own field of interest increasingly diversify.

“Even if you have no interest in debate or anything that has to do with public speaking or argumentation, the skills you learn in debate are really helpful in any aspect of life,” said Tegan.

“They’ve improved the quality of my friendships … so much and you can really utilize them everywhere. To anyone, give debate a shot ... I don’t have a ton of fear speaking in front of people. It’s so beneficial to learn these skills at a young age and in an environment where you won’t be judged.”

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