Speech & Debate Team Qualifies Eight Students to Nationals
The Explorers will be heading to Fort Lauderdale in June for the National Speech and Debate National Tournament.
JohnsonR@LSCHS.ORG
The La Salle College High School Speech and Debate Team qualified eight students to the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Tournament this June in Fort Lauderdale, Florida while competing at the Valley Forge NSDA District Tournament.
The Valley Forge District consists of 34 schools across the greater Lehigh Valley area. The top two competitors from each event at districts earn a spot at the National Tournament. La Salle earned two prestigious school awards—due to a strong performance throughout the year, La Salle was named as the Leading Chapter of the Valley Forge District. This weekends' incredible performance at the District Tournament led to the team also winning the Overall Speech Sweepstakes in the District.
Team President Patrick Kelly '18 won the district in Informative Speaking and also qualified in Original Oratory. Due to the rules of the NSDA, a student can only compete at Nationals in one event, Patrick will compete in Informative Speaking, in which he has previously placed 2nd this year at the prestigious George Mason University Patriot Games Classic and the Harvard University National Speech Tournament.
JV Fluehr '19 won the district in Humorous Interpretation and also qualified in Program Oral Interpretation (POI). JV will compete in POI – the first time in school history a student has qualified in POI. The Policy Debate Team of Jack Martin '18 and Ian Mattson '19 won the district, going undefeated throughout the tournament. This marks the first time La Salle has won the district in Policy Debate since 2015.
Also qualifying to Nationals, was the Duo Team of Aidan Young '18 and Desmond Young '18 – marking the first time in school history a team has qualified in Duo Interpretation. Jack Reckner '18 qualified in Humorous Interpretation for the 2nd straight year, the first time in school history that has occurred. Martin Csongradi '18 qualified to compete in US Extemporaneous Speaking.
The team turns its attention to the Pennsylvania State Tournament next weekend, March 15th – 17th at Bloomsburg University, prior to competing at the Tournament of Champions hosted by the University of Kentucky, the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions in Denver, CO, and the National Catholic Forensics League Grand Nationals in Washington, D.C., before ending its season at NSDA Nationals.
More information available at https://www.speechanddebate.org.