At the end of the year, we host a District tournament where we give away awards to celebrate year long excellence. That will be covered in our next post, but the debaters that weekend still put on quite a show, and we need to recognize those excellent performances. 

This was our last “NATO and Emerging Tech” topic debate of the regular season, and we are very excited to have heard all of the great ideas local youth have had about the state of the world, especially during wartime. 

Varsity: 

After a bit of a rough showing at national qualifiers, Banneker’s Parker righted the ship, going undefeated despite debating alone. This was the powerful performance from an experience, canny debater that we always knew they were capable of. 

Behind them, BASIS DC showed that the “future” is also the present, with up and comers Daniella (right) and Greta taking 2nd, CMIT’s non-seniors Dailyn and Kaleb in 3rd, and a hybrid that might be become a permanent state of affairs between Hardy and Walls, Jack and William, were 4th. Senior KesUraNu and partner Ajibola came from one last tournament, finishing 5th after taking a few months off for college applications. 

We pushed a number of teams into Varsity to help them prepare for Nationals, and look forward to those updates over the next 6 weeks! 

JV: 

BASIS DC’s Saron and Jenny (right) started the year in Novice, but didn’t finish there, closing out the 2023 JV Division. They’re done with JV, with nothing left to prove. 

The other undefeated team in JV was Munachiso and Stephan from College Park Academy. They had never debated before this year, and have really impressed us. The future (and the present) are bright at CPA! 

Alice Deal advanced into JV after a late start, and did well, taking 3rd place, while a different BASIS team took 4th. DuVal and Banneker rounded out the top of the bracket. 

Novice: 

Functionally first year team Girl’s Global has been one of our favorite’s this year. Coaches Starr Rhee and Eleanor Corcoran have brought together some sharp young scholars, and we have very high hopes for the team. It starts with Alex and Ikram, who won the Novice Division. 

DuVal also has a bright future. Coach Wilborn has been largely rebuilding the squad, and going undefeated in Novice is a good sign that they’re ready for the next challenge. Tunde and Sukatulahi are just the latest DuVal team to step up and take home some hardware. 

Coach Banjo was nervous about coaching, and had to be convinced to give it a try this past summer. A year later, we’re really glad she did. Claudia and Ella went undefeated and spearheaded a big resurgence at DCI (not named McCauley). Banneker’s Raeden and Obinna also went undefeated, with Obinna starting to follow his national qualifying sister’s footsteps. Last but not least, Alejandro and Grier of Oyster Adams also went undefeated. They’re all ready for JV, a big testament to Coach Ray. 

Rookie: 

Newcomers Center City Trinidad (now NoMa) had a great first semester, but slipped a bit this winter. They came back with a huge flourish, with Cyne and Evan winning the Rookie Division. Big shout outs to Stuart Hobson’s Nile and Jaden and KIPP/Creative Minds’ Laila and Natalie for going undefeated as well. 

Special shout out to CMIT South’s Lilya and Mokorin and Social Justice’s Kassidy for winning their school’s first trophies this year. 

Many thanks to our fantastic hosts at Capital City. Its always one of our favorite places to host, and its was nice to be back after three years. Also shout out to Volunteer Sam Hanks, who has been learning to Tab and did a great job.