Joeys has a wonderful tradition in debating which spans back throughout the entire History of the College. Whether it be Sir William Dean who donned the Cerise and Blue tie in the mid-1900s, Chris Mangan who won the coveted Lawrence Campbell competition in 1980 or Jack Wright from the mid 2000s who went on to represent Australia in debating. Further to this, most things at Joeys, our debaters have always been part of the balance in education that we are so proud of with young men such as Carlos Blanco being captain of the First XV Rugby and Debating at the same time.

This year our Year 7 boys have already started to enhance this wonderful tradition. Although the GPS competition doesn’t start until Term 2, the debaters are well and truly in the swing of things with the ISDA competition starting a couple of weeks ago and the FED Cup starting last week.

The boys in the ISDA competition have had two debates against Wenona College and St Aloysius. Although they placed second in each of these debates, there is no doubt that they have impressed already. When the boys travelled to Wenona their usual coach Mr Halsted was absent and Ms Anna Nasr filled in for him. This is what Anna had to say of the Year 7 boys after their first debate:

“They blew my socks off!” What a Year 7 team! It was inspiring to watch our wonderful Year 7 debaters negate such a difficult debating topic “That advertising for gambling should be banned from sporting events” for their first debate as St. Joseph’s College students. The Wenona team proved strong, they offered some outstanding arguments and rebuttal but I must say our boys impressed with outstanding manner, well thought out matter coupled with a little pizzazz from Tom Hall. Tim O’Farrell is obviously a seasoned debater, he was inspiring as was first time debater Charlie Laundy, whose enthusiasm and adventurous nature were evident in his delivery. Although the adjudication saw Wenona triumph,  I believe it will be one of this teams few defeats.

Congratulations young men, you were outstanding!

What a great wrap from the coach of another team. Well done boys and we certainly look forward to seeing you debate throughout the year.

Photo: Our ISDA debaters Henry Murphy (Randwick), Tim O’Farrell (Woolwich), Tom Hall (Pymble) and Charlie Laundy (Strathfield)