Saint Ignatius High School hosted the national qualifying speech and debate tournament for 20+ schools and several hundred contestants from Friday, February 15, to Sunday, February 17. Five Wildcats earned spots at the national tournament in Dallas this coming June.
For the first time, all four Policy Debate teams are the qualifiers and the alternates. Henry Wade '19 and Colin Moon '20 along with Matthew Conway '21 and Samual Navracruz '21 will compete at nationals. Leonardo Villa-Forte '19 and Thomas Kmet '19, and Vassilis Alexopoulos '21 and Sanat Subhash '21 will serve as alternates.
For speech, Daniel DeVenney '20 earned a qualifying spot for Humorous Interpretation. Prester Pickett II '19 placed third and earned an alternate spot in Program Oral Interpretation and in Duo Interpretation Alex Daoud '21 and John Daoud '21 placed third to become alternates. Also competing were Cam Cupar '20 in Informative, Robert Klanac '20 in Original Oratory and Milo Quinn '21 in Dramatic Interpretation.
Nick Castele '08 was honored as the Communicator of the Year by the North Coast district of the NSDA. Nick is a reporter/producer for WCPN ideastream. Nick reports on politics, government and a variety of other issues in Northeast Ohio.
Congratulations to Joe Buzzelli, Sean Lavelle '17, Kim Gross, and Rich Fujimoto '66 for all their hard work preparing these young men and helping run such a huge endeavor.
Before nationals, these speakers and debaters will compete at the state finals on March 1-2 at Jackson High School. Good luck, men!
