Speech and Debate Team Makes History At Nationals
Patrick Kelly'18 placed 2nd in the Country in Informative Speaking, the highest a La Salle student has finished at NSDA Nationals since 1994
JohnsonR@LSCHS.ORG
The Speech and Debate Team capped off a historic season by competing at the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Team President and the Class of 2018 Valedictorian, Patrick Kelly headlined an impressive group of eight students who qualified for the tournament. Patrick placed 2nd in the Country in Informative Speaking, the highest a La Salle student has finished at NSDA Nationals since 1994. Patrick performed a 10 minute memorized speech titled 'Spoken Differences,' on the importance of understanding and cultivating dialects. Patrick's performance can be see here:
The Policy Debate team of Jack Martin '18 and Ian Mattson '19 advanced to elimination rounds, finishing in the top 60 teams after losing a close 2-1 decision to the eventual fifth place finishers from Palos Verde Peninsula High School (CA) in Round 8 of the competition. Jack and Ian spent the 2018-19 school year debating both sides of Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its funding and/or regulation of primary and/or secondary education in the United States.
Martin Csongradi '18 qualified in Round 9 of Extemporaneous Debate, placing in the Top 30 of over 300 competitors of this supplemental event. Also qualifying to Nationals was Aidan Young '18, Desmond Young '18, Jack Reckner '18, and JV Fluehr '19. Lastly, the NSDA recognized Head Coach Michael McCabe '08 as achieving the status of a First Diamond Coach – which means students over the last five years achieved more than 15,000 competition points