TRAVERSE CITY — For most of his friends, summer vacation means hitting the beach. For Dylan Cooper, it means hitting the books. Willingly.
The Traverse City Central High School senior is among nearly 60 area students who gave up part of their summer to attend Traverse Area Debate Camp in anticipation of next year's debate season.
"It's like soccer camp, but it's debate," said Cooper, a varsity debater at Central, which hosted the June 21-25 camp. "I want to get a head start so I can be prepared."
Open to students in ninth through 12th grades, the annual camp offers intensive debate instruction and debating practice with experienced debaters and coaching staff. That gives participants an edge when high school competition rolls around in the fall, director Carol Roehrich said.
"It's so complicated and so difficult and some of the kids are so busy or so scheduled that they don't have time to fit in a debate class," said Roehrich, Central's debate coach. "Some schools don't offer debate as a class. Here they get six solid hours of instruction a day. It's almost like a private lesson. It's far beyond what they can get in a class."
A former hockey player, Cooper was introduced to debate through a sophomore class and was drawn to the fast pace — 300-500 words a minute — of competition. Now he hopes to debate at Dartmouth College, where he wants to study international law.
The camp was one of two he's working around summer jobs at both a restaurant and a kayak outfitters. He'll also spend four weeks at the Dartmouth Debate Institute in New Hampshire, a fact that leaves some of his friends scratching their heads.
"I get the weirdest looks," Cooper said.
Devin Johnson has attended debate camps every summer for years and gives Central's the top score "on a scale of 10 to 10."
"They have really good instructors and it's less expensive," she said, referring to the $200 fee. "The bigger camps are more focused on obtaining evidence and not as much on learning and debating the evidence."
A senior and varsity debater at Cadillac High School, Johnson chose to room with a Traverse City debater instead of making the long commute to camp every day. But shopping and sightseeing were absent from her agenda.
"I go to the beach and work on debate," said the University of Michigan hopeful, who wants to study bio-ethics and compete on the Wolverines debate team and to coach debate someday. "There's not time for anything else."
It's that attitude that makes Traverse Area Debate Camp a favorite of returning coach Alan Gocha.
"There's less stigma in Traverse City surrounding debate," said Gocha, a Wayne State University debater and Dexter High School assistant debate coach. "The kids are nicer in general, they're more intelligent and motivated. Most schools have two debaters that are really good and motivated. In this group everyone is motivated."
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