It’s a chilly Saturday morning at 6 a.m. While the rest of Bronx Science sleeps following a harrowing week of homework, tests, and sports, a small group of students – miles away – don button-ups, suit jackets, and ties. Making their way down from their hotel rooms, they board the parked yellow school bus. Those with skirts shiver in the brisk morning air. There’s no time to eat breakfast – coffee is all they will run on for the next couple of hours.
The bus is filled with anxious chatter. In each row, there’s something different. Some students put their headphones on, lean their head back, and try to catch up on the sleep they inevitably lost last night. Others laugh with their friends, in an attempt to escape the stress of the upcoming competition. And some are bent over their computers, working – even at this early hour.
Past the Public Forum and Policy duos, always towards the back of the bus, yellow legal pads start to appear in students’ hands. Balancing computers on their knees, most are adding the finishing touches to their speeches, which are to be delivered in a matter of hours.
This is the Bronx Science Congressional Debate Team, away at a national tournament.
Overview of the Bronx Science Speech and Debate Team
The Bronx Science Speech and Debate Team was founded in 1969 by Richard B. Sodikow, who had graduated from Bronx Science just 14 years earlier. At the time, he had been teaching in the English Department. After founding the team, Mr. Sodikow’s dedication was unmatchable – making a salary of $20,000 in 1977 (about $100,000 today), he spent $7,200 out of pocket just to keep the team going. This commitment was reflected in his achievements – Mr. Sodikow was inducted into the Gold Key Society of the Barkley Forum at Emory University, the NYSDCA Hall of Fame, the TOC Hall of Fame, the National Speech & Debate Association Hall of Fame, and more.
Even today, Mr. Sodikow is still memorialized through the Richard B. Sodikow Memorial Fund at Bronx Science. This fund covers much of the tournament costs for debaters, and is funded by The Bronx Science Foundation, alumni, and anyone who wishes to contribute.
Currently, there are six squads on the Bronx Science Speech and Debate Team: Congress, Lincoln Douglas, Public Forum, Policy, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Speech (which contains further subdivisions). None of the squads have tryouts, meaning that anyone can join. But don’t be fooled – nothing after that point will be easy. Once accepted into a squad, it’s frowned upon to switch. Right from the get-go, commitment is expected.
Intense dedication to the Bronx Science team and one’s squad goes back to the early days. When the team was first founded, students paid whatever they could to go to tournaments, and even held events to raise money. Although funding isn’t much of a problem anymore, the debaters are held to the same level of commitment. Most, if not all, of the practices are student run, and students work closely with adult faculty advisors and debate coaches to host events like Big Bronx, a national debate tournament in which teams from all around the country compete.

This kind of commitment has only risen with the new rules introduced to the debate team just this year. No one is able to drop a tournament without a valid reason – and with the necessary proof – and the amount of tournaments that students are required to go to has increased substantially. These new rules require a heightened level of commitment, but the majority of debaters have taken it in stride and met this standard.
What is Congressional Debate?
Congressional Debate is meant to represent a facsimile of our Congress in Washington, D.C – pieces of legislation are proposed, and the debaters must decide to pass or fail them. They then must produce a three-minute argumentative speech, complete with a catchy introduction, pieces of data, and clear logic.
In a round, there will usually be around 12-18 other debaters. Once the round starts, one competitor is selected to be a PO (Presiding Officer). This debater keeps time on everyone’s speeches, keeps a record of who is speaking and asking questions, and leads the chamber through the round.
After quickly going through the standard motions, one debater will come up and introduce the bill – commonly called the Authorship or Sponsorship speech. Then, someone from the opposing side – negation – will come up and deliver their speech, and the order will alternate from then on. In between each speech, there are time blocks for questioning, which is where the debate part of Congress comes into play.
What sets Congress apart from the other squads is how adaptable the speakers must be. In a round of debate, there is no guarantee of when you will speak, or even what legislation you will be speaking on. One must always expect the unexpected, whether that is speaking on a different side of the debate (affirmation instead of negation or vice versa), or changing the format of your speech mid-round =, because you simply were not called upon early enough. The debate is ever moving, and versatile.
As well as this, the personalization of one’s speaking style and speeches is quite unique to Congress. Introductions in speeches can be funny or dead serious, and points can be given in all kinds of different ways. Speaking style can also vary a lot – while I personally lean towards a more conversational tone, some debaters like to maintain formality. There’s a wide range of options available when it comes to personalization.
Congress Preparation
The weeks leading up to a tournament are stressful, yet rewarding. Congress preparation can take more work then all of one’s academic classes combined.
A few weeks in advance, the bill docket for the tournament is released. This docket will contain a large number of bills from which debaters will pick and choose the ones they want to prepare. Ideally, one should be prepared on every single bill, but that rarely happens. Instead, debaters from a given school will talk on a monitored document about which bills they would like to hear debated.
The topics of these bills can be about anything, ranging from foreign affairs to self-driving cars. This versatility creates the most time consuming aspect of Congress – one must be well researched on every topic they plan to speak on.
Speech and Debate Team President and Congressional Debate Captain Christopher Procaccino ’24 quantifies this. “If there is a tournament, [I’ll be preparing for] 6-8 hours.” To do well at a debate tournament is all in the preparation, as any Congressional debater will tell you. Time management is key.
Congress Tournaments: A Day in the Life
At a local Congress tournament, which is usually on the New York City Forensic League circuit, students travel from home to the tournament. This means waking up early, as one would for school, and making your way to the campus.
The debaters have to be in the building by 8 a.m. The first round for Congress, however, usually doesn’t start until 9:30 a.m., so the debaters will sit in a group, finalizing their speeches on legal pads. The familiar faces of local competitors from other schools are everywhere – and although they’re in direct competition with each other, all of the teams still intermingle. Friendly interactions are the norm.
Local tournaments are considered more low-stress. In between rounds, Congress debaters will congregate and debrief about their chamber, chatting about something that somebody said during a speech, or predicting who broke to the final round.
At a national Congress tournament, debaters are flown out or driven to a hotel – usually a Marriott. On Saturday, they have to wake up around 6 a.m. to travel to the actual debate campus. The bus ride is intense. Debaters frantically scribble introductions and pieces of data onto their legal pad, and there isn’t much talking. Everyone is nervous for the hours ahead.
Once rounds start, the faces that debaters see will be mostly unfamiliar, making everything just a bit more tense. In between rounds, there will be light conversation, but the atmosphere is different from a local tournament. The stakes are higher, because at national tournaments, one can receive a bid to the annual Tournament of Champions – the most prestigious tournament of the year.
Not Just Debate
It sounds corny, but the Speech and Debate Team isn’t all about debate. It’s also about community and friendship. This is especially true for the Congressional Debate team.

The whole reason that I joined Congress during my ninth grade year was because at the orientation for Congress, I saw how close the leadership was with one another. Although Congress is an individual event – meaning that you’re competing even with your own team – there’s still a strong sense of community. Procaccino agrees. “I think [competing with each other] actually helps build community….you’re kind of challenging them, but you won’t totally throw them off balance,” he said.
For instance, the novice directors – who teach new debaters – get to watch their novices grow up at tournaments. Although they will always be directly compared, scored, and ranked to each other, none of that interrupts the feeling of friendship that the novices have with their directors.
‘Prepsharing’ at bigger tournaments is also quite common. This means that the whole group of debaters going to a tournament gets together and organizes a Google Drive in which there are speeches for everyone to use. They willingly give each other the speeches that they worked hard on.
And then, there are the experiences outside of debate rounds. On the long bus ride home after a national tournament, the atmosphere will often be loud and celebratory, with all of the tournament stress released. Music will be blasting from a speaker, and the debaters will turn into teenagers again, laughing and playing games. Even during tournaments, a quick Target run with your squad releases you from the debate world and allows you to simply enjoy time spent with friends. In these moments, the team becomes more of a family.
At the end of the day, no matter what place one gets at a tournament, the team is always ready to celebrate their achievements. Although tournaments can seem cutthroat at times, the environment created by that simple feeling of togetherness is never unwelcoming.
“In this event, you can never be too comfortable in your shoes,” Procaccino told me. But the Bronx Science Congressional Debate team is bonded by the fact that they’re all in it together.
“In this event, you can never be too comfortable in your shoes,” Procaccino told me. But the Bronx Science Congressional Debate team is bonded by the fact that they’re all in it together.