Wichita Southeast debate coach Kayla Benson will count on junior Ben Carter to be in his comfort zone this weekend at the KSHSAA Class 6A 4-Speaker Debate state championship in Lawrence.
 
With Carter and classmate Isabela Stroman – both second-year debaters – joined by four Golden Buffalo newcomers, Southeast will enter the competition relatively raw in terms of experience.
 
Yet Carter, who will argue the negative side for Southeast’s 4-speaker team, has rapidly emerged into a dependable leader.
 
“He’s very instrumental for us because he’s a very quick thinker,” Benson said. “In those times under pressure if they come in and do something we weren’t expecting, he’s very calm and like, ‘OK, change of plans. Here’s what we’re doing.’”
 
Carter, the CapFed® True Blue® Student of the Week, should feel somewhat at home during the competition at Bailey Hall on the University of Kansas campus. He spent two weeks there last summer attending the Jayhawk Debate Institute, a program designed to help high school students refine their skills and prepare for the ensuing school year’s policy debate topic.
 
Carter arrived at the Jayhawk Debate Institute one day after returning from the National Debate & Speech Association national tournament in Des Moines, Iowa. The camp provided Carter with access to KU’s vast online research sources, policy topic lectures and debate theory instruction. It concluded with a tournament in which he competed with a partner from Arkansas.
 
“It really helped me massively,” Carter said. “Throughout my first year, it was mostly a lot of fundamentals of debate and drilling those in. Once I got through that first year, I went to camp and learned about the complexities of different arguments that I really hadn’t gotten to learn about that first year.
 
“Also, we were still drilling those fundamentals in breakout groups, and to be able to apply that immediately, that was super helpful to me.”
 
Carter got hooked on debate early in his sophomore year, finding the appeal beyond what he labeled “surface-level arguing.” He was the top novice speaker among 130 first-year debaters at an early-season tournament, and continued to collect medals and honors throughout the KSHSAA debate and speech seasons.
 
“A lot of it is just understanding how a lot of different types of arguments function,” Carter said. “It just really made sense and clicked with me. I was able to get to that next level and understand more once I got beyond that surface level.”
 
Carter, who played on the varsity and junior varsity for Southeast’s baseball team last spring, has become like an assistant coach in his second year of debate, Benson said. He has frequently worked with Southeast’s first-year debaters to help them hone their skills.
 
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a student who is as dedicated as he is, almost where it’s to the point of over-dedication,” Benson said. “This year, especially, he’s been taking on such a big leadership role on our team. He is one of our top debaters here, if not the top debater at Southeast.
 
“He’s debated really only with first-years except for two tournaments. He’s really been growing our program to get more students involved. He does such a good job of making sure everyone on our team is getting the knowledge, getting the concepts. We’ll joke all the time that I’ll be saying, ‘We should probably do this,’ and he’ll say, ‘I’m on it.’ Or he’s already started researching what I say we should probably look into.
 
“He’s always that one next step ahead and has helped us succeed so much this season.”
 
Carter has embraced the responsibility while continuing to hone his debate skills.
 
“I’m definitely trying to,” Carter said. “I really love trying to bond with the novices and help them get better. I have tried to set that example to be there if they need me because I know that helps the team. I love to be there for them.”
 
Carter, who competed at the state level in 2-Speaker debate last year, will have a much different role at the 4-Speaker state tournament, which begins Friday. In addition to Carter and Stroman, the Buffs will be represented by senior Eunnise Chamriho, junior Ori Haag, and freshman alternates Danna Ramirez and Jhasson Fernandez.
 
Carter will occupy the second negative speaker role for Southeast – an anchor-type spot Benson says Carter is equipped to handle.
 
“It’s one of the most challenging positions in debate,” Benson said. “The affirmative, we know what that debate is going to be about. On the negative, we have no idea what affirmative that will be run.
 
“He has about eight minutes to decide what’s going to be the strategy. If they come in and read something that we’re not thinking that they’ll read, he’s got eight minutes to figure out what arguments are we going to read against that and communicate with his partner, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do.’”
 
The national high school policy debate topic for 2025-26 is the Arctic, with the following resolution: “The United States federal government should significantly increase its exploration and/or development of the Arctic.” That topic will again be at hand this weekend for Class 6A and 5A state competitors in Lawrence, and 4A and 3-2-1A competitors in Coffeyville.
 
Carter said he has enjoyed researching it from numerous angles.
 
“I’ve definitely got a really firm grasp of it,” Carter said. “But a lot of teams will cut new arguments that you’ve never seen before. There’s a lot of really interesting ways that you can take it, and intricate perspectives.
 
“There are always new ways to debate. The end of every debate is always going to be different no matter how much research you do. You may see some of the same arguments, but every time it ends up differently.”