Seniors Hogan and Grogan Place 3rd in Policy Debate at National Catholic Finals; La Salle Wins School of Excellence Award
John Curran '15, Nick Petaccio '16, Eric Kindelan '15, and Matt Coughlin '15 advanced to the Top 32 in their events as well.
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The team of La Salle College High School seniors Conor Hogan '15 and Jack Grogan '15 placed 3rd in Policy Debate at the National Catholic Forensics League (NCFL) National Finals. The Policy Debate team of John Curran '15 and Nick Petaccio '16 and the Public Forum Debate team of Eric Kindelan '15 and Matt Coughlin '15 advanced to the Double-Octofinals (Top 32) in their respective events. La Salle won the Eleanor E. Wright Debate School of Excellence Award which is awarded to the Top 5 schools nationally based on their performance at the NCFL Finals each year. This is the third consecutive year that La Salle has has been recognized as an NCFL Debate School of Excellence and the fifth time since 2008.
Debating both sides of the topic "Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its non-military exploration and/or development of the Earth's oceans", the team of Hogan and Grogan were the top seed after the preliminary rounds of competition in Policy Debate, winning all 5 of their preliminary rounds with a 3-0 decision. They were the only team with a perfect 15-0 ballot count. They also won their Doube-Octofinal, Octofinal, and Quarterfinal rounds on 3-0 decisions, making their ballot count an amazing 24-0 before the Semifinal round. They lost a 3-2 decision to a team from Shawnee Mission East (Kansas) to finish 3rd. Last year, Conor and Jack also placed 3rd at the NCFL National Finals.
The team of Curran and Petaccio also debating the policy debate topic, finished the preliminary rounds with a 4-1 record and were the 14th seed entering elimination rounds. They lost in the Double-Octofinal Round to a team from Blue Valley North High School (Kansas). This was the second year that John and Nick placed in the Top 32 at NCFL Nationasl, as they finished 10th in Policy Debate last year.
The team of Kindelan and Coughlin debated both sides of the topic "Resolved: Corporate influence in education is detrimental to society". They had a 4-1 record in the preliminary rounds of Public Forum Debate and lost in the Double-Octofinal Round on a 2-1 decision to a team from Wellington High School (Florida).
Qualifying to represent Philadelphia at the NCFL National Finals in Lincoln Douglas Debate, were Jeremy Puntel '15 and Shawn Robinson '16. they debate both sides of the topic "Resolved: When in conflict, international actions to counter terrorism ought to take priority over national interests." Both Jeremy and Shawn finished the preliminary rounds with 3-2 records and were one ballot shy of advancing to the elimination rounds.
Andrew Perrong '15 qualified to the NCFL National Finals in Congressional Debate which is an event that works much like a legislative body and requires students to debate the merits of student-submitted legislation on a variety of issues. Andrew was nominated for the Semifinal Chamber but lost the student vote.
In the Original Oratory category, Connor Williams '15 qualified to represent Philadelphia. His speech, entitled Mistakes Were Made examined the societal pressure for individuals to avoid accepting responsibility for mistakes.
The team of Matt Schargel '15 and Nick Parkes '16 qualified to represent Philadelphia in the category Duo Interpretation of Literature. Matt and Nick performed a very funny 10-minute cutting of Lend Me a Tenor.
Patrick Kelly '18 qualified to the NCFL National Finals in Oratorical Declamation, which is an event where a freshman or sophomore performs a speech mae by someone else. Pat perfromed the national award-winning speech from La Salle alumnus Gabe Bevilaqua '94, The Man, The Bench, and The Bruger Joint which is about our "acceptance ethic".