National Champions - 2009

This year’s National Forensic League Championship speech and debate tournament concluded on Saturday, so I should have the 2011 rankings done by week’s end. In the meantime, we continue to countdown with the top ten schools from the Nationals in 2009. These are NOT the NFL’s official results; they have no such rankings at the national level. (For more on that, see my earlier post here.)

10^th: Eastview High School – Apple Valley, Minnesota. Unlike the California schools profiled so far, which often have dozens of miles between them, this is the fourth school south of St. Paul to reach the NFL’s top ten (so far). Sitting no more than half an hour away from any of its intrastate rivals, coaches James Fedje and Meg Krekeler maintain the same standards of excellence. Lindsey White captured the national title in humorous interpretation, and Taylor Mislak placed 5^th in dramatic interpretation to lead the Lightning.

9^th: Monte Vista High School – Danville, CA. Speaking of the golden state, about an hour’s drive north of San Jose and twenty miles east of Oakland lies David Matley’s squad which has made a habit of accumulating state and national honors. Student Congress (aka Congressional debate) has long been a staple for the Mustangs, and at the Birmingham Nationals, they had a top-five award in both the Senate (Nipun Bhandari – 3^rd place) and House divisions (Sebastian DeLuca – 5^th place).

8^th: Liberty High School – Liberty, Missouri. Coach Sean Nicewaner led a squad of thirteen students from Liberty (about fifteen miles northeast of Kansas City) to Las Vegas, balancing speech and debate honors nicely on their way into the top ten. Kristen Wright was a finalist in the House division of Student Congress , and Katelin Whittaker brought an 8^th place trophy for Lincoln/Douglas debate home for the Blue Jays.

7^th: Winston Churchill High School – San Antonio, Texas. The Lone Star state regularly sends several highly successful students to Nationals, and the Churchill coaching staff continued that trend with their third top-ten finish in six years. Kandi King, Brian Eanes, and Dylan Pearcy advanced nine students to elimination rounds, paced by Briana Collins, who took 9^th place in original oratory.

6^th: Park Hill South High School – Riverside, Missouri. The “Show Me” State has now shown up four times in the NFL’s top ten over the past three years. Coach Jennifer Holden guided her Panthers to an impressive showing in debate, qualifying twelve to Vegas and advancing eight, topped by debate teams Nathan Werner & Zach Schmitz (12^th place – Policy debate) and Jon Gabriel Luna & Parker Viers (11^th place – Public Forum debate).

5^th: Gabrielino High School – San Gabriel, California. The Eagles spend a second consecutive year in the five-spot, buoyed by ten students reaching the elimination rounds including three in original oratory. Tina Nguyen captured her second top oratory award at Nationals, placing 10^th, while Waldo Yan provided coach Derek Yuill with some debate muscle as a semi-finalist in the House division of Congressional debate.

4^th: Desert Vista High School – Phoenix, Arizona. Improving upon last year’s sixth place finish, coach Victor Silva advanced an astounding twelve out of seventeen competitors, and this time flashed some debate results along with their perennial speech prowess. The Thunder landed a semi-finalist and a finalist in Congressional debate (Greg Hietala and Brittany Stanchik, respectively, in the House) to match the accolades in international extemporaneous (Michael Watson – 10^th place) and dramatic interpretation (Jenny Gladstone – 6^th place).

3^rd: James Logan High School – Union City, California. Tommie Lindsey’s program has lived in the NFL’s top ten for seven straight years, but perhaps their most impressive feat yet is the expansion of their repertoire and depth. In sum, the team advanced in eight of the eleven main events at the Vegas Nationals. Alongside their third Duo championship in four years (Ismael Williams & Drake Plough), the Colts also placed 2^nd in Policy debate (Patrick Berger & Justin Chan).

2^nd: Bellarmine College Preparatory – San Jose, California. Kim Jones’ Bells placed an extemporaneous speaker in the top three for the third straight Nationals. In fact, they had three: the champion in the national division (Evan Larson) plus 2^nd and 3^rd place in international (Will Rafey and Jacob Baker, respectively). They also followed last year’s interpretation title with Ryan Vasquez’s runner-up finish in humorous. The debaters kept pace as Senator Anthony Paranzino placed 4^th in Congressional debate, while Public Forum debater Parijat Chakrabarti earned his second top-ten finish in as many Nationals, placing 7^th with partner Vikram Singh.

2009 National Champion: Eagan High School – Eagan, Minnesota. Teamwork has become a hallmark of Joni Anker’s squad, who defended its national title with a staggering cumulative performance. Fifteen students advanced to eliminations, and nearly half of them reached the NFL’s top ten in their respective events. Joe Thomas took 5^th place in original oratory, one of three students to advance in that event. Two Duo teams likewise reached the top five – Aaron Straka & Lauren Stopfer (5^th place) and Joshua Evans & Robert Knapp (4^th place) – while the Public Forum team of Rachel Markon & Christian Reynolds took home 7^th place.