This past weekend our Jesters competed near our nation’s capital at the George Mason Speech and Debate Tournament in Fairfax, VA.   We should be very proud of them as we had several competitors who placed very well at what is the largest national HS debate tournament!

Public Forum Debate, Octofinalists- Sammi Dean and Olivia Veira

Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Octofinalist- Will Taft; 2nd Place- Tiger Li

Extemporaneous Speaking, Quarterfinalist- Ben Simonds-Malamud; Semifinalist- Isabelle Taft

Impromptu Speaking, 5th Place, Isabelle Taft

This was a large competition with 1,900 entries from 124 schools from 17 states, the vast majority being private schools. The team did a remarkable job!

However, the implications of this type of success are pretty serious… Mr. Herrera challenged his debaters to advance to at least the semi-final round.  If they did so the winning debater/debaters could choose a color for me to dye my silvery beard.

Tiger Li did one round better by advancing to finals!!   Stay tuned… pictures coming soon!