Eleven students qualify for national debate tournament

Uma Raja, Arts Editor

March 4, 2016

Communications senior Bethany Ebanks (L-R), junior Matt Nadel, senior Taylor Rich, junior Jake Perl, junior Jack Yan, junior Michael Wang, senior Riley Freese, digital media sophomore Josh Meredith, communications junior Kayla Gallagher, and communications junior Ariel Gordon pose with their awards after qualifying for the 2016 National Speech and Debate Tournament.

Eleven Dreyfoos speech and debate students will get to compete against the best debaters in the world at the 2016 National Speech and Debate Tournament. In order to qualify, these students competed and placed highly for their performance at the qualifier tournament at Inlet Grove High School in Riviera Beach from Feb. 27 to Feb. 28.

“A qualifying tournament is a gatekeeper to nationals,” communications dean Angela Anyzeski said. “So it is at the tournament, after you’ve competed at various tournaments in your event over the course of a year, where it is definitively determined who is going to represent our district at the national level.”

The 2016 National Speech and Debate Tournament will take place in Salt Lake City from June 12 to June 17. Those who attended the qualifier tournament had to place either first or second in their event to be accepted to the 2016 National Speech and Debate Tournament.

“I felt extremely humbled and validated,” communications junior Jake Perl, who qualified for his humorous interpretation piece, said. “It was a great feeling to put a lot of effort into something and receive a tangible result.”

In addition, Dreyfoos won all four sweepstakes trophies: overall district award, speech award, Congress award, and trophy points awards. These awards are based on which school’s students had the best performance.

“[The 2016 National Speech and Debate Tournament] is a very competitive five-day competition, so I believe there is a different level of competition at this tournament. Students really have to bring their A-game in order to advance at this tournament,” Ms. Anyzeski said. “Also, I think [qualifying students] need to be commended for doing so well and for representing Dreyfoos so well.”

The results are as follows:

Communications senior Bethany Ebanks – Student Informative

Communications junior Matt Nadel – Original Oratory

Communications senior Taylor Rich – Congress

Communications junior Jake Perl – Humorous Interpretation

Communications junior Jack Yan – International Extemp

Communications junior Michael Wang – Domestic Extemp

Communications senior Riley Freese – Congress

Digital media sophomore Josh Meredith – Humorous Interpretation

Communications junior Kayla Gallagher – Duo Interpretation

Communications sophomore Ariel Gordon – Duo Interpretation

Communications sophomore Alex Gordon – Congress (part of the World School Debate Team, a global competition where he is part of a team that competes against other nations.)

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About the Contributor

Uma Raja, Assistant Managing Editor

Communications senior Uma Raja, Assistant Managing Editor and third-year staffer, was born in Manhattan, New York City. She loves animals and enjoys traveling the world to see different aspects of nature and various cultures. Raja's passion has been writing ever since kindergarten, and she has been published several times. She received an Excellent in review writing at the National High School Journalism Convention, third place for news writing in the Palm Beach Post Journalism Awards two years in a row, a Scholastic Silver Key for journalism, and three Editor’s Choice awards for journalism pieces in the literary magazine Teen Ink. She spent her summer at the Washington Journalism and Media Conference, where she participated in writing workshops and received instruction from seasoned journalists. She looks forward to creating intriguing articles and putting in a full effort. Raja has worked with esteemed writers like James Patterson and National Geographic Editor-in-Chief Susan Goldberg, and she hopes that her writing will one day inspire others.