The Washington Urban Debate wrapped up season 2021 – 2022 on a high note with our end of year awards. These awards are given out to students, coaches, schools, and volunteers that have demonstrated consistent excellence across the entire season. Some are selected by WUDL staff or determined by competitive records, while others are elected by their peers (WUDL Student Choice Awards), or elected by our judges (WUDL Judge’s Choice Award).
Read all about our Team Awards and our Student Awards in our previous posts
Coach of the Year: Messai Yigletu, BASIS DC
Messai is a young educator at BASIS DC, teaching Creative Writing at the Middle School level, and philosophy at the high school level. He’s also the founding coach of the BASIS DC debate team last year, which grew to new heights this year. Competitive highlights include:
- Middle School National Champions (Lockwood/Mazumdar)
- Urban Debate National Championship Quarter-Finalists (Durand/O’Sullivan)
- Middle School National Qualifiers (Pierce/Seth)
- WUDL Sweepstakes Cup Winners
Only one coach has ever qualified teams to both middle and high school nationals before, previous Coach of the Year, Coach Hawk at Capital City. The trophies speak for themselves, but Messai supports a large team with a range of debaters of all ages, from 6th – 12th grade, which is a challenge in its own right. Our discussions of the growth and development of his JV debaters inspired just as much passion and enthusiasm as those about his national qualifiers. Coach Yigletu arranged for us to host the 8th Annual Harris-Ornstein Summer Debate Institute at BASIS DC, and also hosted us for the UDNC, a rare in-person opportunity this year.
BASIS DC is poised to be the “team to beat” for the coming year that will push everyone across the league, across all divisions to be better.
New Coach of the Year: Marcus Peterson, EL Haynes Middle School
The previous coach at EL Haynes, Zoe Spielvogel, also won this award two years ago. Before she departed, she recruited a replacement for herself, Marcus. After the intro meeting with Marcus in August last year, Dr. Price remarked to me about Marcus’s enthusiasm, and his practical questions. We had a good feeling coming into the year about Marcus, and weren’t disappointed. Despite never seeing a debate round before his team’s first tournament, he had them ready to roll, recruiting a large cadre of new students. His team was very young, but consistently grew and succeeded all season, with minimal help from us. He did some important team-building moves this year, such as hosting the team at the school for virtual tournaments so they could all have good access to internet, food, and camaraderie. We are excited to see what the coming year holds for your growing team!
Shout Out to Coach Zachary Komlo at Phelps High School — as a finalist for the National Debate Coach of the Year, he wasn’t eligible for these awards.
Volunteer of the Year: Jessica Berenson
The WUDL partners with the Matthew Harris-Ornstein Memorial Foundation each year for our summer debate program. Matthew was a mentor of Jess’s as a high school debater, and she is now the Executive Director of the Foundation dedicated to preserving his legacy. As a volunteer, Jess lapped the competition, giving more than 300 hours of her time this past year to supporting young debaters. She coached at DC International and supported the WUDL Club Team for debaters without a program of their own, and also supported many of our regional tournaments, even without a team she was coaching in attendance.
Jess is an excellent partner to work with each year, and we wish her well as she pursues a degree in Social Work over the next few years!