With a generational winter storm bearing down on the Greater Washington region, debaters, coaches, and volunteers went about their business. We ran a nice, crisp tournament at Coolidge High School, wrapping up at 4 PM so families could make their last minute preparations and make sure everyone got home safe. 

First of all, a big shout out to our new hosts – Coolidge High School and KIPP DC Shaw hosted for the first time. Both hosts were awesome, and we even ran into an old UDL friend at KIPP who used to put together tournaments for the NYCUDL back in the day. 

These tournaments were the last tune-up for our students interested in qualifying to either the Urban Debate National Championship, held this year at Harvard University, or Middle School Nationals. Regardless of division, it had been more than a month since WUDL debaters got to take the field since before the holidays, so it was nice to be back in the groove of tournament life! 

At the American League’s tournament in January: 

Rookie: Two teams went undefeated: Ruby / Aria from John Francis, and Jacques / Vaughn from Capitol Hill Montessori. They are definitely ready for the next challenge in Novice. It was the Hardy and John Francis show for the rest of the awards, as Scarlett / Jasmine and Ximena / Favor (Hardy) and Khalil / Xijin, Nicoloz / Gavin, and Joyce / Skye (John Francis) won the next five awards. 

Shout out: Center City Shaw’s Andrew for winning 4th Individual Speaker, their school’s first award! 

Novice: We only had one undefeated team – Max and Felix from Inspired Teaching. They’re definitely ready for JV. 

Hardy continued to do well, with Danait / Eliana and Neasa / Paz taking trophies in Novice, along with Magali / Livia from E. Roosevelt, Morgan / Josie from BASIS DC, Anais / Brooke (Sojourner Truth HS), Che / Gary (John Francis), and Alyaan (Seneca Valley). 

Shout out to Sojourner Truth’s Anais / Brooke, who have had a winning record every tournament this season. 

JV: Aurea / Tyius (Digital Pioneers) and Harold / Shaan (School Without Walls) dominated the competition, going undefeated. Both teams are ready to get their toes wet in Varsity before the end of the year. 

Kema / Flora (Hardy), Yakin / Jacob (John Francis), Tailah / Jessica (Coolidge), and Alberto / Amir (Coolidge) also took home hardware. 

Varsity: When you have a team ranked among the best in the nation competing at a local competition, you generally expect them to do well. That expectation was accurate, as BASIS DC’s Jack / Margaret went undefeated, though a host of other strong teams kept them honest. James / Evelyn (Walls), Anna / Victoria (Duke), Amelia / Bobby (Walls), and Kai / Olive (Walls) took home hardware. 

Shoutouts: To Kai and Olive for getting awards in their second Varsity tournament ever 

To Murray and Felipe for being the only other team with a winning record in Varsity who didn’t get awards. 

Debate En Espanol: 

Held on site, parallel, to the event, we had a number of teams participating in a Debate en Espanol competition virtually with teams across the nation. 

Last year’s champions, Yudelkis and Diana (Forest Park) were the champions, finishing undefeated, and as the top two individual speakers, while (Claudia / Addie) (DC International) finished 3rd, and Miguel / Cecilia (Oyster Adams) finished 5th. 

At the White and Case Invitational (National League)  

Rookie: This was the Francis Hammond show: 

Jamila / Priyanka, Ava / Tasnia, Jalaluddin / Fares, Yara / Sasha, and Mo / Raquel won 5/6 of the top awards, and only lost one round collectively. Montgomery Village’s Jordi was the only one who broke their dominance, also going undefeated. Not to be overshadowed, Grace / Nurjenna and Sana / Aisha also won awards….and were also from Francis Hammond. Fiona / Alex (Stuart Hobson) and Francesca / Helena (DCI) were the only other folks not from Francis Hammond to win from the top 10. 

Shout out: 6th grader Julian, who was an emergency fill in at Pennsbury a few weeks ago, was top speaker, debating with a new partner. 

Novice: We’ve been talking with Coach Souleymane-Dinkins about fast tracking some of his student for quals….this is why. Last year’s New Debater of the Year Karamoko / Gerson went undefeated, with teammates Melina / Itoroobong finished 1st and 3rd, respectively. They’re ready to throw their hat in the right for MS Quals. 

Charles Flowers continued their great day, with Gabrielle / Faith finishing 2nd.  Fresh off getting her toes wet at a regional, Abby and new partner Jess placed 4th. Osiris / Emmanuel (DuVal), Daniel / Kasey (Columbia Heights), Noel / Mathis and Olivia / Francesca (Oyster Adams) and Vera / Riley (Eliot Hine). 

Shout out: Jonathan and Eon from Mergenthaler won their school’s first awards in 15 years (Coach just found an old plaque from the 1990s in a storage bin recently). 

Debate En Espanol: In their last tune up before quals – Claudia / Addie (DCI) won the division, with Andre, debating alone, finishing 2nd. 

JV: Dr. Arndt at Banneker kicked her entire Novice squad into JV. They were clearly ready, as Bilal and Xavier went undefeated and took 1st place in their JV debut. Norman / Nicole and Leah / Nubia were already destined for Varsity next tournament….and they also won awards, (2nd and 4th, respectively). Also just coming up from Novice, Noah and Frank (Charles Flowers) took 3rd place after an exciting trip to Pennsbury for their first regional experience last weekend. Annika / Maite (Oyster Adams) took home 5th place (and should definitely be in MS Quals next tournament too). 

Shout out: Home team KIPP DC Shaw’s Robyn took home 9th place speaker. 

Varsity:  Four different schools were represented in the top five awards, showing some great competitive parity. Two teams went undefeated, getting some good practice for qualifiers – Rohan / Symon (Banneker) and Jackson / Abe (DCI). Madison / Marshall (Banneker), Muhammad / Marcus (Forest Park) and Eliza / Louise (Eliot Hine).  Banneker swept the speaker awards,  with Symon, Madison, Rohan, Marshall, and Mina taking the awards.