Novices Take Center Stage @ Northrop Thanksgiving Throwdown

Leadership Award Winners Claire (Academy of Health Sciences) Myrnal (Creative Minds), and Sally (Eliot Hine) are recognized at the start of the awards ceremony. This is a new award, recognizing students for their contributions to their teams, not just their competitive talents.

Over the last two weekends, we’ve focused on different parts of the WUDL participant universe. Two weekends ago, we had more than 100 WUDL students participate in a large, regional competition where the competitive results held a bit more weight. Last weekend, we had our tiniest debaters participating in our Fall Elementary School competition. 

This weekend, the spotlight was on our Novice and Rookie debaters, with some more experienced debaters in the judge pool to help out as mentors and coaches. 

I want to give a shoutout to the many more experienced debaters who led or co-led workshops for their peers: Madison and Amira (Duke), Sitara and Casper (BASIS DC), Leia (Thurgood Marshall),  Arielle (Charles Flowers), Sheridan and Clovis (Frederick Douglass), Ian (Creative Minds), Claire and Ayisha (Academy of Health Sciences), Andrea and Elizabeth (DuVal), and Marshall (Stuart Hobson). Judging debates is a great way for older students to get greater perspective on how debates unfold without personal investment in the outcome, and teaching fundamentals is the best way to make sure you are reinforcing them for yourself, so this was a great learning experience for all. 

While the tournament got delayed a bit at the beginning due to some technical difficulties with DCPS wifi, the event ran smoothly from there, with 3 rounds of competition and a workshop at the end to answer all of the questions debaters had come up with during the day. 

We also have to give a big shoutout to Principal Cooke, AP Walker – McClean, and the entire team at MacFarland. This was a very warm and welcoming campus, especially to host at for the first time, and we really felt well supported and welcomed into your space. The mural work and intentional graffiti space was the focus of many pictures from attendees, we couldn’t have asked for better hosts. 


After a late start on some campuses, and no opportunities to compete earlier in the month, some campuses came out eager to win some hardware. 
 
  • Academy of Health Sciences, a new team participating in their second tournament this year, won 14(!) awards among 16 debaters. Every one of the their teams had a winning record, and a number of these students are on the fast track to JV in January. 
  • Cardozo EC made their debut, only two weeks after starting practice. Both teams won at least one round, and are excited to get some more practice for the Dec. tournament. 
  • Inspired Teaching and Jefferson Academy made their debuts this past weekend, with ITDS winning several trophies. 
  • Two weeks after their advanced debaters debuted, Thurgood Marshall’s novices made their season debut, with Atrayu and Imani finishing 10th overall.
  • Home field advantage seemed to do well for MacFarland, who had more, and more successful debaters debuting as well, almost capturing 1st place at their own tournament.  
  • Oyster Adams won top speaker in both divisions, a rarity. They’re currently leading perennial leader Stuart Hobson for the Top Middle School Team in the region. 

Special shout outs to our 8(!) undefeated teams in a giant Novice Division. 

  • Academy of Health Sciences: Emilia and Shannon
  • Academy of Health Sciences: Iremofe and Sara
  • Banneker Rahel and Yasmin
  • DuVal: Isaiah and Christopher
  • Roosevelt: Trinity and Kasiye
  • Stuart Hobson: Reagan and Prince
  • Stuart Hobson: Asher and Bilal
  • CMIT North: Teniola and Mumin

And to our top speakers: 

  • Raffi: (Oyster Adams)
  • Jackson Griffith (DCi)
  • Murray (BASIS DC)
  • Yasmin (Banneker)
  • Shannon (AHS)
  • Alexis (CMIT N)
  • Atrayu (Thurgood)
  • Isabel (AHS)
  • Judah (DuVal)
  • Madison (Banneker)

In the Rookie Division, we had 10(!) undefeated teams, all worthy of recognition:

  • Berrin and Alexander (Oyster)
  • Nicolle and Norman (MacFarland)
  • Karamoko and Gerson (Kettering)
  • Vincent and Avigail (Kettering)
  • Russell and Max (Inspired Teaching)
  • Kiersten and Yakin (John Francis)
  • Jade and Chloe (John Francis)
  • Justin and Noah (Kettering)
  • Henry and Sally (Eliot Hine)
  • Alex and Toumani (DCI)

and our top speakers:

  • Alex (Oyster Adams)
  • Nicolle (MacFarland)
  • Norman (MacFarland)
  • Berrin (Oyster Adams)
  • Karamoko (Kettering)
  • Russell (Inspired Teaching)
  • Denim (Stuart Hobson)
  • Diego (Oyster Adams
  • Chloe (John Francis)
  • Che (John Francis)
  • Mathis (Oyster Adams)
  • Erin (Redlands)

Lastly, we are excited to see Paul PCS debut at the Dec. tournament after doing a workshop with Advisory Board Member Jackson Erpenbach, debating around against Jackson and WUDL Director David, and watching a great throwdown between Roosevelt and Banneker during round 3. Very excited to see them coming together with some great leadership of their new coach, Rosaly Lake. 

Norman and Nicolle from the home team, MacFarland, got 2nd place
Coach Lake and the PAUL PCS debaters pose with WUDL Director David after their intro to debate workshop. They'll make their competitive debut in December.
Novice Champions Shannon and Emilia from Academy of Health Sciences
Novice Top Speaker Raffi their award at the tournament.
WUDL Board Member Jay Cox, Director of Investigations @ Northrop Grumman, stands ready to give out awards at the Nov. tournament, sponsored by his Counsel's office. Jay ran a workshop and judged 3 rounds, one of several volunteers that helped out from his team. As you can see behind him, we had a full house -- one of our largest tournaments yet, without a JV or Varsity Division in sight.
Hope of Banneker recieves her speaker award. Banneker did a great job despite having Coach Arndt out of town.
Duval's Isaiah and Christopher went undefeated as Dr. Price looks for the next generation of DuVal super debaters