It's a SWEEP: Speyer Debate takes Top Three Spots, Top Speaker's Gavel, AND Overall Top School Award!
Forget dusting or vacuuming…Speyer Debaters know how to SWEEP! Speyer teams took the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place spots at last weekend’s NYPL tournament at The Hackley School, while also bringing home the Top Speaker's gavel, and the Overall School Award! Here with the full Debate recap is our esteemed Debate Coach Mr. Glasser:
Speaking in a debate tournament can be a nerve wracking experience. Even though Speyer students get plenty of public speaking exposure, there is no way to totally simulate the pressure that comes with needing to deliver a case in an unfamiliar environment to an unknown audience and with another team of students assigned to convince everyone that you’re wrong.
Ok, but say you've mastered your nerves up until that point. You're just waiting for the round's judge to arrive, which he does. Leaving you with just one question remaining: "Wait - is our judge Russian Chess Grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, political activist, and commonly cited as Greatest Chess Player of All Time... Garry Kasparov?!"
This past weekend at our debate tournament the answer was yes! While I think that our students are some of the few in the city who happen to recognize Garry Kasparov on sight, the buzz that he was floating around the event started early in the day. Imagine the surprise for our chess fans when he also volunteered to judge several of our debate rounds! Our students must have been inspired, though, as Mr. Kasparov granted the win to the Speyer team in each of the rounds we argued in front of him.
The final results of the day: well, there is clearly no excuse for crumbs after snack in the classroom, since it turns out that Speyer students really do know how to SWEEP! Speyer teams took the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place spots at the tournament, while also bringing home the Top Speaker's gavel, and the Overall School Award. In fact, Speyer snagged 8 out of the top 10 speaker spots.
They argued the very relevant and difficult subjects: Gifted schools do more harm than good; NYC should establish a legal right to sleep outside; and Social media platforms should ban political advertisements.
This tournament at The Hackley School in Tarrytown was especially fun because we had the chance to mix up our competition a bit. We have been competing largely in the NYC Urban Debate League this year, which hosts the largest debate competitions in the city. This tournament was hosted by the New York Debate League, which is smaller but has more rounds, tougher topics, and far more independent schools. The NYDL event included teams from Dalton, Hackley, BISNY, Nightingale, City and Country, NEST, Fieldston Ethical Culture, Dwight, and many others.
At the end of the day, 6th grader Nathan G. took home the coveted Top Speaker's gavel. This is an especially cool feat since the NYDL does not have divisions, so our 6th graders took on plenty of 8th grade teams. Caitlin M. tied for 2nd place, Sasha W. took 4th, Alden N. snagged 6th, Alex V. took 7th, Sana M. achieved 8th, Brynn M. nabbed 9th, and Zack V. rounded out the top with 10th!
Speyer swept all three top spots in the team awards with three of our teams going undefeated all day out of only four such teams at the event. Sana M., Alden N., and Sasha W. won first place; Caitlin M., Alex V., and Brynn M. won second; and Nathan G., Mikaela G., and Zack V. won third!
We also had Daniel T. and Philip M.; Max B., AJ S., and Elliot H.; and Zadie S. and Gavin S. rounding out the team who all achieved some of their personal top scores and posted enough wins to help us achieve the Overall 1st Place School Award!
The season is still in full swing, so stay tuned for more Dragon Debate news coming soon! GO DRAGONS!