Written By Katherine Xue

Hello everyone! We’re excited to bring you another feature from one of our student leaders – our way of spotlighting the incredible members of our Potomac Debate community! This time, it’s Veer Parmar, who is a Student Captain for Potomac and a longtime debater, having been with Potomac for over four years. 

Veer is one of our youngest captains, having entered high school this year at Thomas S. Wootton High School. For debaters who have been doing the activity in both middle and high school, there are always difficulties and changes that must be navigated. For Veer, who was a prolific debater on the middle school national circuit, he found the biggest challenge to be paying more attention to the little parts of debate that  he hadn’t even noticed in middle school. “Things that seem basic, like fully extending an argument, fully warranting a response, or fleshing out your weighing, can make or break rounds.” For middle school debaters who might be intimidated by the high school national circuit, Veer’s biggest piece of advice is to watch as many high-level rounds as possible. “A big part of our improvement was modeling ourselves after teams who consistently make it to our rounds, and looking up to other debaters who have had success in the past.”

Despite the difficulty of the transition, Veer has been seeing success on the high school circuit. Alongside his partner Anthony Lee, the freshman duo obtained their first gold bid to the Tournament of Champions—a qualification-only tournament that less than 2% of debaters nationwide attend. “Getting a gold bid at Michigan was a great experience and both me and Anthony definitely learnt a lot. It was a super tech tournament, so we tried out different kinds of arguments throughout, and had a great time every round.”

Interestingly enough, their most impressive feat from this tournament might be their trajectory. Veer and Anthony started the tournament 0-2, losing the first two of six preliminary rounds. From there, they “rode the bubble”—a debate term meaning that just one more loss would pop their chances of clearing to elimination rounds. “We were super hyped especially [because we] clawed our way back up.” 

And in situations like this, where adrenaline and stress build up simultaneously, we were curious if he had any tournament-specific rituals to calm down any nerves or build up confidence. Veer’s answer? “Lowkey, 30 minutes of [Instagram] reels and five minutes of [music] before round.” 

Veer’s journey in high school debate is only beginning, but we’re incredibly proud to have been with him throughout it! That’s all for this feature – stay tuned for more spotlights on the amazing student leaders who make the Potomac community what it is.