submitted by Leslie King and Erica Cooper, Debate Coach
duPont Manual Debaters Prevail in Grievance against Kentucky High School Speech League (KHSSL) over State Tournament Seeding and Bracketing Errors; Debate Club Scores Big with Wyatt Wilson Scholarships
Led by team captains Ria Jain and Mark Raj, five students, five parents, and sponsor/coach Erica Cooper presented and spoke on Saturday, April 21, in Elizabethtown about the grievance filed by duPont Manual High School against the KHSSL, giving students a chance to put their debate skills to use in a real-life experience. The outcome was a unanimous decision by the KHSSL Board of Directors to award dual championship awards to the debate divisions with seeding and bracketing errors discovered by our students at the state championship. Because of the efforts of our school’s debate club members, students from all over the state of Kentucky will receive trophies and National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) points that they did not receive at the conclusion of the state championships. Due to the corrections, duPont Manual Debate Club is proud to announce two new state champion wins:
Varsity Public Forum
Brendan Bultman/Ben Hanson – State Champions
Varsity Lincoln Douglas
Ria Jain – State Champion
The Debate Club also won year-end recognition and awards at the Wyatt Wilson Debate League banquet. We are proud to announce the following:
2017-18 Novice Public Forum
Eliza Gallagher/Emmett King – High Point Champions
2018 Scholarship Awards ($1300 each)
Eliza Gallagher
Nikhil Polepalli
Kevin Cao
Shreshth Srivastava
Jennifer Xu
Pranav Kanmadikar
Romith Paily
The Debate Club welcomes new members of any grade. We meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school and attendance is generally required at 50% of the meetings to be considered for competition.