2nd KDU Interschool Debate (British Parliamentary)

  SMK SS17 has reached 2 finals of  national competitions in 3 years. Both times ending up second best. But out of more that 100 teams all over the country, coupled with low expectations each time. But it almost never happened.

  It was supposed to be Rishen and Kiran, but excuse after excuse trumped his persistent persuasion every single time. Until he gave up. Then he found out that Nadia, Natalie(ex F6)'s sis, who beat SMK SS17 in Wira 2010 representing SU, enrolled in SMK SS17 for Form 6. And the rest, they say, was history. But he'll elaborate of course.

  With the newly minted team of Nadia and her friend ZZ, he introduced them to BP-style debate, with a few mocks here and there, briefed them on strategy, and a whole bunch of other stuff they probably didnt use, all within 2 weeks. So there wasnt any high hopes really.

  The teams they went up against were well coached by either varsity debaters or the coaches of varsity debaters, and some of them could give many varsity teams a run for their money. Uni debaters adopting high schools to coach has really lifted the standards of high school debates. There were teams throwing around things like "utilitarianism", "consequencialism", "harm principle" and other fancy sounding jargon.

 Nevertheless, the team broke comfortably at 19th, out of 32 teams eligible for the break. It was pretty much mission accomplished at this point. But then they kept advancing, from octos, quarters, and finally the semis. This was probably their single best performance, defending the assasination of Osama bin Laden. Nadia was mesmerizing, and ZZ did an excellent job as the whip. Although he was the only supporter of the team(as it was in most rounds, as opposed to the entire hoards cheering other teams), he clapped and cheered and went "hear! hear!" at the best bits. Sure there were odd glances, but credit where its due, and not like he gave a damn anyway. He was proud.

 And so they made it to the finals. So casually dressed, it was obvious they never expected to make it that far.  Coming up against National Champions SDAR(who was coached by a varsity coach), they gave a good fight. But SDAR deservedly took the title, with SMK SS17 coming in second. And Nadia getting best speaker of the Grand Final. Which wasn't too bad really, each of them getting 50% scholarships at KDU, RM 500 each(RM300 extra for Nadia since she was best speaker) and free Tune Hotel stays. They even decided to compensate him for his efforts(efforts which was far from enough to prep a team who has never debated BP before). It was the first time he was "paid" to coach. Which means he could sort of claim to be a "professional coach", being paid and all.

  Maybe he shouldn't have told them not to do anything silly like wining the competition.