As masking regulations relax, the restrictions on competition-based clubs like Speech and Debate, Ethics Bowl, and Mock Trial have returned to pre-pandemic guidelines. Throughout the pandemic, competition based clubs were not allowed to travel due to COVID-19 restrictions.       

   Although they are grateful that this is now changed, this news has come too late for the Speech and Debate team, which has missed all of its local competitions except for one, which was the last weekend of February. 

   “We were recently able to compete in our first local tournament, which was the last tournament of the season, pretty much. [But] we only got to compete at that local because it was still a virtual tournament,” said Jennifer Li, a math teacher at PHS and the Head Coach of the PHS Speech and Debate team. 

   As it is a part of the New Jersey Speech and Debate League, the school is normally able to participate in competitions hosted by other schools in the area. However, PHS struggled to compete after every school except for one transitioned to in-person tournaments.

   This problem did not just affect debate though, as all competition-based clubs were impacted. Mock Trial, for example, also lost out on the opportunity to have its competition in-person.

   “The whole [Mock Trial] competition was on zoom,” said Angelina Chen ‘22, a member of the PHS Mock Trial club. “It was a really cool experience for me in past years, and I was sad that the [other members] wouldn’t get the experience of doing it in person.” 

   Online competitions significantly impact how students experience and enjoy clubs. Jonathan Xie ‘22, a member of the PHS E-sports club, believes that competing online has taken away a large part of the experience that students could have had if they competed in person.

   “In person is so much better. Being able to look at [your opponents] sitting right next to you, screaming and bumping fists, is really fun,” said Xie.

   However, many students have remained optimistic, despite the fact that they had to compete online. This year in debate, for example, Alexander Margulis ‘24 and Ishaan Banerjee ‘24 managed to become the first sophomores in the history of PHS to ever qualify for the Public Forum Tournament of Champions, a prestigious event with entries from all around the country. 

   Moving forward, while many other clubs already missed their chance to compete, the Speech and Debate team hoped to gain approval to compete in-person at the district tournament on March 18, which would have allowed more students to have a chance to qualify for the National Speech and Debate Association national tournament. 

   “Our season starts in September and ends in March if we don’t make it to Nationals or the Tournament of Champions. So that is what all Speech and Debate students aim for.” Li said.