“The most energy and joy I’ve experienced in a good bit”

— WUDL volunteer judge from this weekend’s tournament

Coach Komlo has been around WUDL for a while. He’s our longest tenured coach at this point, and has seen it all. Often, his squad has only been Novices. One tournament, his entire squad was on crutches. Last year, he was a Finalist for National Debate Coach of the Year, and has seen his students grow to become one of our most competitive Varsity squads. 

One thing he’d never seen in his debate career? A home game. 

Phelps High School is D.C.’s vocational school, and is a beautiful location, set up on a hill overlooking the Anacostia River and the Langston golf course. It has an array of rooms many of our other partners don’t have, like plumbing labs, forklift simulators, or power tools. All in all, it is a beautiful school that after a great tour from the school’s custodial staff, certainly has the space to host a regional debate tournament. 

It is part of our philosophy to move the hosting of tournaments around the city and region (space allowing) so that nobody is traveling the furthest all the time. Hosting at Phelps is a step in the right direction there, giving a wider array of students a “home game.” 

We started the process for Phelps to host in February 2020, and only three years later, we are so glad to make it a reality. 

We’ll cover our national qualifiers in another post, but we had a great Rookie, Novice, and JV competition too! 

In JV, the home team, Phelps’s Nguyen/Knowles, were making some novel arguments surrounding music and playing with the form of how arguments are delivered. If they hadn’t had to forfeit the last round due to familial obligations, they would have likely done much better, but they still finished in 8th place. Instead, DuVal dominated, taking 1st and 2nd place and the 3rd and 6th speaker. 

Stuart Hobson’s Filliung-Reinard and Tull Jr. finished 3rd, contributing to Stuart Hobson taking a narrow lead over Banneker and BASIS DC for the WUDL Sweepstakes Cup, given to the best team in the region for the entire season. 

Fresh off a regional tournament, CMIT’s Green jumped up to JV and finished 4th overall, with Banneker, BASIS, and Douglas also doing well in JV. 

In a giant Novice Division, we had 4(!) undefeated teams, from Alice Deal (Kimbrell/Caspar), DuVal (Abiol/Olorunfemi), Walls (Alexandra/Clark), and Stuart Hobson (Freihage/Jackson). DuVal and Deal dominated the division, also placing 6th and 10th (DuVal) and 5th (Deal) as well as a number of speaker awards for both teams. They’re ready for JV as a stepping stone for next year. 

Shout outs: Sanchez Clavel of Suitland for getting that squad back off the ground after a brief layoff, and to some awards this weekend! 

When I went to a few Creative Minds practices in January, she was quiet, and didn’t say much unless actively asked, letting the boisterous boys on the team guide the conversation. However, when she did speak, it was the best and most thoughtful commentary provided. Now, Thomas of Creative Minds was our 10th overall speaker. 

In Rookie: 

The big story is KIPP Shaw making a great debut. Three of their debaters won awards, including as part of a hybrid with Eliot Hine, who went undefeated! Hailu, Hailu, Ihuoma and the rest of the squad have a very bright future. Great job Coach Smalley! 

Eliot Hine’s Powell/Pratt won the division, and another hybrid team, Sommers Yoder (DCI)/ Boyle (Creative Minds) also went undefeated. Kettering students brought home a lot of trophies as their team continues their quite successful mid-season debut. MoVi, EL Haynes, and Capital City rounded off the rest of the awards.