West Ottawa High School debate team wins Metro League Championship again
For the fourth time in the past five seasons, the West Ottawa High School debate team won the Grand Rapids Metro League championship.
GRAND RAPIDS — For the fourth time in the past five seasons, the West Ottawa High School debate team won the Grand Rapids Metro League championship.
Compiling a 17-3 record, the team won comfortably ahead of second-place finisher Grand Rapids City High School (12-8). Other league competitors included East Kentwood, Forest Hills Central, Northview and Kenowa Hills.
The Metro Debate League, administered by former Grand Rapids Christian coach Lew Vander Meer, bases its debate content on the national high school policy debate topic. This year's topic is: "The United States federal government should significantly increase its exploration and/or development of the Arctic." Each school has one or more affirmative teams of two students who affirm or support this potential policy, and one or more negative teams, also of two debaters, who argue against the proposed policies.
While affirmative teams devise a plan that solves current harms or produces significant advantages, their opponents may argue that harms are exaggerated, that what the affirmatives propose is already happening or could be happening, that serious disadvantages would result from the adoption of the affirmative’s plan, or even that a negative counterplan produces better results than the affirmative one.
A policy debate, like those that occur in the Metro League, involves four eight- minute constructive speeches, in which all the arguments and most of the evidence for the cases emerge, followed by three-minute cross-examination periods, and is capped off by four five-minute rebuttals. A judge can award each speaker up to 30 points, based on how well each handles analysis of the topic, evidence used or not used, reasoning, organization, refutation and delivery.
Debaters in the Metro League compete for speaker awards based on their speaker point totals, as well as for team awards. This year, West Ottawa debaters took home four of the top five speaker awards in the varsity division.
Among the West Ottawa varsity:
- Second negative speaker Kamea Amundsen won the league’s Top Speaker award.
- Second affirmative speaker Imagine Rodriguez won for second top speaker.
- First affirmative speaker Ruth Van Tuinen won the fourth-best speaker award.
- First negative speaker Kylin Rushlo won the fifth speaker award.
Ruth Van Tuinen and Imagine Rodriguez, both seniors, were undefeated in league competition in the 2024-25 season and went 6-0 in 2025 before losing two matches. After the streak of 14 consecutive wins, they came back from the two losses to finish 16 for 18 matches over two seasons.
Kylin Rushlo and Kamea Amundsen were novices elevated to the varsity level in their first season. Both sophomores concluded their league competition with a 9-1 record.
The West Ottawa novice team, consisting of Adelynne Sunha, Amy Rodriguez, Melany Sanchez, Thea Smith, and Ameis Munoz, won 8 of 20 matches; however, Thea Smith won a sixth-place speaker trophy, and all are determined to grow as varsity debaters next season.
The West Ottawa team, coached by West Ottawa teacher Chris Norton and Al Ver Schure, a retired teacher and coach from Hamilton High School, is currently the only high school debate program along the lakeshore.
Because of its value in teaching students critical thinking, improved speaking and research abilities, Norton and Ver Schure are committed to the effort of getting other lakeshore schools back into restarting debate programs that had been allowed to be abandoned.
— Submitted by Al Ver Schure. Click here to submit an article.
