Wednesday, April 24, 2002
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Wednesday, April 24, 2002 |
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Starr's Mill has most Georgia qualifiers in national speech-debate tourney No one in the state can hold a candle to the Starr's Mill High School's speech and debate team. During a recent state forensic competition, the team qualified four of the fourteen students from Georgia that can advance to the National Forensic League National Competition more qualifiers than any other school in the state. "At the beginning of the year, I knew that I had a good team, but I never thought that they would come so far so fast," said speech and debate coach Sean Bennett. During the 2001-2002 season, members of the speech and debate team had more than 50 top-five finishes, including 17 first-place finishes. David Ballard, the team's top speaker, was single-handedly responsible for eight of the team's first place wins this year. During the year, the team expanded to compete in Model United Nations, Student Congress and Lincoln-Douglas Debate. The team's hard work in preparation for competitions paid off. Students spent two hours every Tuesday and Thursday practicing competitive drills and listening to strategy lectures. The team will go up against some of the best debaters from around the United States this June at the National Forensic League tournament in Charlotte. At the tournament, Ballard will represent Starr's Mill in both Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking and Original Oratory, Julia Wilson will compete in the area of Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking and Erin Gatlin will participate in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Gatlin is the school's first ever qualifier in the Lincoln-Douglas Debate area. Although Bennett is proud of his team's accomplishments, he says that debating is more than just winning competitions. "Debating helps students develop communication and analytical skills that make them more successful in life. On another level, debate also wins college scholarships and develops argumentative skills that transfer to college debate and political and legal careers," he added.
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