The RBHS and Hickman High School (HHS) speech and debate teams hosted their annual Columbia, Mo. (COMO) Classic debate tournament in person for the first time in three years. 24 schools from across Missouri attended the “for the love of it” themed event. Jefferson City High School, Bolivar High School and Clayton High School took first, second and third place in sweeps (teams earning the most debate points) respectively. 

Assistant CPS debate coach Marissa Moore said that her favorite part of the tournament was seeing all of the judges and students from Columbia come together to make the event happen. She worked with hospitality and ensured the judges and coaches from other schools had all the supplies they needed for the tournament. Before being a coach, Moore attended Battle High School and competed at COMO Classic two years ago, when only RBHS hosted the event. 

“This COMO Classic was a lot different for me. When I competed in debate, this was always known as the ‘Rock Bridge Tournament,’ and Hickman had no part,” Moore said. “I really love to see [the two schools] come together to work on it. Some of the logistics of the tournament were also different, but in general, it was a very average tournament before [COVID-19].”

Sophomore Aditi Patel helped run the virtual tournament last year and noted the obstacles to organizing any debate tournament. Patel said tournaments are always hectic since there’s a significant amount of coordination behind the scenes.

“This year, we actually had to make sure the physical competitors were in their rooms and that we even had enough rooms for the people to go in. That caused a couple of pretty big-time delays since we had scheduled many events to take place in the same rooms,” Patel said. “These kids love to talk, so they would often take much longer than expected, and we had some people that had to wait a while in their rooms.” 

Senior RBHS speech and debate co-captain Anish Ganga initially came to the tournament to help with judging but eventually also had to package ballots, check in on other teams and judge a couple of rounds. He explained how his jobs often switched because he wanted to make sure everything went smoothly.

This COMO Classic was a lot different for me. When I competed in debate, this was always known as the ‘Rock Bridge Tournament,’ and Hickman had no part. I really love to see [the two schools] come together to work on it. Some of the logistics of the tournament were also different, but in general, it was a very average tournament before [COVID-19].

“The tournament was really stressful, but I enjoyed the stress, it [made] me really happy, and that’s how I knew the tournament was running well,” Ganga said. “Debate tournaments always have a lot of [organizational] components, and the team and I spent months ensuring everything would run smoothly, but obviously, we had to face some obstacles.”

The 2023 COMO Classic was one of the biggest tournaments RBHS has hosted in the past few years. Patel said she hopes to continue to see the tournament grow in the future.

“All in all, it was definitely more exhausting having to run an in-person tournament,” Patel said. “But [an in-person COMO Classic is] much more worth it and interactive.”   

Did you attend the COMO Classic debate tournament? Let us know in the comments below.