Over the last three weeks, the debate team competed at two strong local tournaments and traveled to Chicago.
The Kinkaid debate team took advantage of the long weekend by traveling to Chicago to compete at the New Trier Township High School tournament. New Trier THS hosted a 'mid-major' of high school debate. There were 102 teams in attendance representing 36 schools from 14 states. The tournament only offers a policy division, and the top 8 teams receive bids to the prestigious Tournament of Champions (TOC) sponsored by the University of Kentucky.
The team found significant success including:
- Sophomores Sam Richey and Sabrina Bajwa reached the top 8 (quarter-finals) of the tournament. They received a bid to the TOC (reserved for the top 72 teams in the country). They were 5-1 in prelims, and they beat the best from St. Marks School (Dallas), West Des Moines Valley (Iowa), Glenbrook North School (Chicago) and Glenbrook South (Chicago).
- Senior Reece Rosenthal and junior Arjun Reddy placed in the top 16 (octo-finals), losing a very close debate on a 2-1 decision to Walter Payton College Prep (Chicago). Reece and Arjun went undefeated and were the top seed coming out of preliminary rounds.
- Reece was awarded the 2nd overall speaker of the tournament (out of 204 individuals), and Arjun was awarded the 13th speaker.
The same weekend, Kinkaid took a big team, both middle and upper school, to the local tournament sponsored by Cypress Lakes High School. Thirty competitive schools from throughout Houston attended the tournament. Jason Courville coached the team to significant success including:
- Varsity Lincoln-Douglas - Sophomore Jason Yang received 2nd place. Jason received significant points towards qualifying for the Texas Forensics Association State tournament. Kinkaid had two more in the top 8 (quarterfinals) including sophomore Vivian Liu and junior Alex Kalai. Sophomore Anvi Nandish was also in the top 16 (octo-finals).
- Novice Lincoln-Douglas - first year Jack Beaver placed 2nd.
- Championship public forum - First-year team of Minhhy Truong and Lauren Ho reached the top 8.
Finally, on the weekend of September 26-27, the team went to Cypress Woods HS, one of the most competitive local tournaments. There were 58 schools in attendance. The team’s successes were:
- Varsity policy debate - Junior Sita Yerramsetti and Senior Rikki Bleiweiss reached the semi-finals, losing a close debate to Taylor HS (Katy).
- Varsity Lincoln-Douglas - Kinkaid had three debaters who placed in the top 32. They all lost in that round. The LD debaters who placed include Junior Emma Hanan, Sophomore Vivian Liu, and first year David Liang.
- Novice Lincoln-Douglas - first year Christos Papandreau reached the top 16.
Next weekend, the team splits up to travel to three locations - Bronx High School of Sciences (NY), St. Marks School (Dallas), and locally at Bellaire High School. Tyler Gamble will be representing Kinkaid at the Bronx HS of Sciences round robin, largely considered the most competitive Lincoln-Douglas round robin in the country.
Thanks to everyone who supports the team including, but not limited to, the staff who ensured our safe travel, the teachers who teach the debaters, the coaches who work with the students, and the parents who provide endless well wishes and snacks.
-- Eric Emerson, Upper School Debate Coach