The Portsmouth High School Clipper Debate Team hosted a tournament at Portsmouth High School on Saturday, November 16. The topic debated was “Resolved: The United States should substantially reduce its military support of Taiwan.”

Portsmouth’s teams competed in four rounds of the Public Forum Debate against about 50 debaters from six other schools.

The team was happy to have two new debaters competing in the tournament, Hannah Williams and Gracie Edge.

The PHS team had an outstanding performance, with great results across several categories. In the team category, Vritti Mehra and Isabella Fishteyn won 3rd place, Ian Franas and Owen Coffey won 2nd, and Charlie Anderson and Isobel Horowitz came in 1st! In speaker rankings, Charlie Anderson, Isabella Fishteyn, and Owen Coffey won 3rd, 2nd, and 1st places respectively!

The PHS Debate Team would like to extend a special thank you to Market Basket for allowing us to fundraise for the 2024-2025 debate season, and to the people of Portsmouth for being so generous in funding the team’s tournaments, which allowed the team to compete at Harvard earlier this year.