With chest held high beneath a buttoned jacket, the teenager began his argument about coal-mine grandfathering laws.

It was an issue Mary Charvet knew little about, but she only had a few minutes before offering her rebuttal. Her pen scribbled across a steno pad.

The Silversmith Speech and Debate Club, for Christian homeschool students in South King County, competed at its regional event in Renton last weekend. It won spots in several categories at the national competition in June.

The debate students used preliminary rounds to learn about their opponents and to test arguments.

The teenager finished his proposition. Charvet’s preparation time began to count down.

“Thirty-seconds used,” said a volunteer.

Serena Smith, Charvet’s partner, flipped through a thick notebook of newspaper articles and government reports.

“One minute…”

Charvet began to mark the pages, called pieces of evidence, with neon-colored sticky notes.

“Two minutes…”

The competition, a brother and sister, began whispering. Charvet’s hand twitched as she took one last glance at the evidence for her argument.

“Two minutes, 30 seconds used,” the timer said.

Charvet stood. The clock stopped.

Addressing the judge, a parent from Oregon, with a smile, words flew from her mouth faster than an auctioneer. The audience of six looked on from sofas that lined the back wall.

She glanced up from her podium, a music stand, and slowly began to breathe between sentences. Grandfathering, she said, was already over.

“You just kind of get sucked into it,” said 17-year-old Smith of debating.

The Silversmith debaters won’t move onto the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association national competition this year.

Their strength is in speech and interpretation, which is storytelling, said coach and mother Shirley Rowe.

Charvet, from Covington, and Smith, from Federal Way, still enjoy the challenge of walking into a room with only rumors about what argument their opponents could present.

“It makes you think more,” Smith said. “How can I tear apart their argument without a Ph.D.?”

They’ve been studying this year’s topic, U.S. environmental policy, since September. The intensity of their research grows through the year. The week before, it was all Charvet studied.

“A lot of teams like to go negative. I like presenting our own case,” she said.

A shy girl, she’s confident at a podium. In addition to debate, she competed in three speech categories this year.

“Being able to get up and speak on your feet, that’s a confidence booster,” Rowe said.

The team meets once a week through the school year. They discuss concepts of debate, speech and interpretation. The students take turns debating arguments.

Charvet joined the team, because of her parents’ encouragement.

“I don’t consider myself very argumentative,” she said. “I thought it (debate) would be a good challenge.”

Students study current events and learn to be more articulate. Debaters learn how to frame an argument, Rowe said.

“They (students) do it because the make such great friends,” she added.

The regional debate, which makes up about 11 states in the North, was held at Renton’s First Evangelical Presbyterian Church this year April 14-17.

Parents and community members volunteered to judge the competitions, which were scattered throughout the large church.

The national organization is for Christian home-school students.

One of the speech categories is apologetics, a formal defense of faith.

“We want our students to be able to articulate their faith,” Rowe said. “We want them to be leaders.”

Two Silversmith students, Grace and Sophia DeBusschere of Maple Valley, will move onto nationals at Regent University in Virginia. Renton’s Evan Bell, who trains with a Kirkland club, will debate at nationals.