Back-to-Back State Championships

Post date: Mar 29, 2012 3:55:20 PM

Woodward Academy successfully defended its Georgia State Debate Championship by winning the 2012 Georgia Forensic Coaches Association Varsity State Championship. Hosted this year by Westminster Schools in Atlanta, the Georgia State Debate Championship is inclusive of all schools—public and private, A to 5A—and requires teams to qualify in order to compete by reaching the semifinals of a regular season invitational tournament.This year, Woodward qualified three teams to the state tournament: juniors Alex Duner and Zoi Rosado, senior Nasir Nanjee and junior Karthik Srinivasan, and seniors (and defending state champions) Rahim Shakoor and Jason Sigalos. Alex and Zoi finished the preliminary rounds with a 3-2 record, missing the cut to elimination rounds based on speaker points. Nasir and Karthik notched a 4-1 record that featured wins over Cairo, Houston County, Johns Creek, and Marist and a loss to Johns Creek's top team. The eight seed entering elimination rounds, the duo was defeated in the octafinals by Chattahoochee on a 2-1 decision.Rahim and Jason, meanwhile, posted an undefeated preliminary round record that included wins over Dunwoody, Houston County, Alpharetta, and Pace Academy (twice). After defeating Alpharetta in the octafinals and Chattahoochee in the quarterfinals, the duo defeated a third team from Pace in the semifinals to reach the final round. Negating against Dunwoody, the team they had defeated in the first round of the tournament, Rahim and Jason won a unanimous decision.

In addition to their team honors, Jason was the tournament's top speaker for the second year in a row. Rahim finished 5th.

All told, 17 judges heard Woodward SS debate and all 17 voted in their favor. The State Championship is the second consecutive for Woodward and the twelfth in school history. Since the unification of the State Tournament, Woodward is the only school to have won the overall Georgia State Debate Championship.