With a state title on the line, junior Ethan Camp noticed an unsure look from a judge and spontaneously added a second argument to his final speech at the Illinois Debate Coaches Association, also known as IDCA, state championship on March 3.
“While I was making the argument that I wanted to go for, one of the judges was making kind of an iffy face, like they weren’t sure if they believed it or something like that,” said Camp. “And I was right. [Afterwards], the judge was like, ‘That’s exactly how I was feeling.’”
Camp and Rozenblat won the IDCA championship as a team, with judges voting 4-1 in their favor during the final round against Glenbrook South. Camp placed third and junior Joe Rozenblat placed 10th in the individual speaker awards.
“[Camp and Rozenblat are] one of the best junior-junior teams we’ve ever had, not just when I’ve been here, but if you go back further, I can’t think of another junior-junior team that’s had a better year,” said Michael Greenstein, head of the debate program. “So they’ve done really well for two juniors. A lot of the time, our best team would be two seniors, or a senior and a junior, and so we’ve had high expectations for them, butthey met those and exceeded them.”
According to Rozenblat, most debate preparation involves researching articles, turning them into arguments that they study closely.
“A lot of preparation is done specifically for the teams, so when we [were] at state, we knew which teams were the most threatening and we prepared specifically and we went over that,” said Rozenblat. “That’s how we beat them.”
Camp and Rozenblat compete in policy debate, in which students either affirm or negate a proposed government policy. During the 2024-2025 season, students debated whether the United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patentsand/or trademarks.
Camp and Rozenblat have been debate partners since their sophomore year.
“Ethan and I have been friends since third grade, so we’ve known each other for a long time, but certainly debating together has brought us closer,” Rozenblat said.
According to Camp, coaches are often hesitant to put friends together because they worry that those partnerships can ruin friendships since debate is a competitive and high-stakes activity, but Camp and Rozenblat have remained close.
“We’re joking outside of the debate, and we’re both really good at cheering each other up, especially after something tough happens,” Camp said.
Camp and Rozenblat placed 19th at the Tournament of Champions, also known as TOC, a national debate tournament that took place from April 26 to April 28 in Lexington, Ky.
“Next year, we really want to win [TOC],” said Camp. “We think we have a pretty good shot. Basically, a lot of the teams that did well this year were either two senior duos or junior-senior duos. So just based on the amount of junior-junior duos, we think we have a really, really good shot.”