The Desert Lights Las Vegas Nationals was a successful and exciting one for Myers Park Debate. To begin, we qualified more people to this Nationals, eleven, than any other before. In addition, we took home the prestigious Schwan School of Excellence in Debate Trophy, awarded to only eleven schools.

A special congratulations to Lucas Scholl who broke to finals in the Senate and the Public Forum Teams of Ramy El Kalioby & Lee Schuitema and Sean Ege & Everett Lozzi who broke to rounds 9 and 8 respectively. Congratulations to Roshan Sadanani, Sean Ege, Geoff Yost, and Mike Griggs who had success in their supplemental and consolation events.

Our Coaches, Andrew West and Jason Kline were both awarded with new diamonds this year. Mr. Kline earned his first and Mr. West earned his third. The picture below shows Mr. West accepting his third diamond plaque.

Myers Park was proud to cheer on other North Carolinians at the tournament. North Meck’s Dallas McKinney and Raina Enand were 11th place in Duo Interpretation. Meredith Potter & Caleb Frye of Pinecrest were the national champions in Public Forum. Arjun Chandran of Cary Academy was fourth place in Lincoln-Douglas.

Those students who qualified to nationals will be catching their planes today for Las Vegas and a week of intense competition against others from around the country. We’ll probably post updates here on the homepage as they come. Wish them luck!

More then 20 students and coaches will be traveling to Appleton, WI for NCFL Grand Nationals this weekend.

We will keep you updated with results! You can track who advances to elimination rounds at www.foxcitiesncfl.org

Congratulations! The Governor’s Cup once again returns to Myers Park with the outstanding performance of the team April 17-18 at the Tarheel Forensic League State Championship in Greensboro. Pictures and full results are coming soon.

Dinner at the TFL State Tournament this year will be by Jason’s Deli, and each school is being asked to preorder the meals desired. We have created a signup on the website to facilitate this. Please sign up for your meal choice as soon as you can so we can get the order in to the States people. Note that the meal costs $7, and includes a sandwich (roast beef, turkey, ham, or vegetarian), chips, pickle, dessert, and drink. This will be the only dinner option available, meaning if you do not order food now, you will not have dinner Friday night. Also note that by signing up, you are agreeing to pay for the meal.

The link to sign up is accessible through the tournament signup link at the top of this page, or alternatively by clicking here.

Myers Park had its best performance since 1996 by qualifying eleven students to the NFL National Championships in Las Vegas, NV, in June. Winning the District Sweepstakes trophy for the twelfth year in a row, the team was extremely successful in all events entered.

The students who qualified were:
Congressional Debate – Lucas Scholl (’08)
Dramatic Interpretation – Fara Soubouti (’09)
Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking – Kevin Zhao (’08)
Humorous Interpretation – Michael Griggs (’11)
Lincoln Douglas Debate – Roshan Sadanani (’08)
Original Oratory – Alex Kastanas (’10)
Public Forum Debate – Lee Schuitema (’09)
Public Forum Debate – Ramy El Kalioby (’10)
Public Forum Debate – Sean Ege (’09)
Public Forum Debate – Everett Lozzi (’09)
US Extemporaneous Speaking – Geoff Yost (’08)

Congratulations to Carolina West District Coach of the Year, Mr. Kline!

Congratulations to Ramy El Kalioby & Lee Schuitema (4-2, seed 57), Suman Sivasubramaniam & Vignesh Sivasubramaniam (5-1, seed 21), and Angelica Chavez & Jesse Schwab (5-1, seed 24) who broke to Triple Octafinals in Public Forum Debate at Harvard. The triples round is being held right now and results of these rounds will be released immediately following.

Geoff Yost & Allie MacKinnon were 4-2, missing the break by mere points. Sean Ege & Everett Lozzi and David Marshall & Sam Williams were both 3-3. Full preliminary results are here.

We are awaiting the results of congress semifinals and who will break to finals.

Congratulations to the 9 people from MP who broke in the most difficult Congress tournament in the nation. The following are semifinalists and will receive a bid to the Tournament of Champions.

Lucas Scholl
Brandon Huskisson
Hannah Hindel
Rafe Kettler
Priyang Shah
Zak Kobos
Tanvika Gupta
Elena Botella
Vicky Cheng

These students compete in semifinals tonight. LATE tonight we will know who breaks to finals.

We are awaiting breaks for LD, PFD, and some IE.