Team History

For the full team history, click here.

A History of the Francis Parker Speech and Debate Team

Sophia Epley (2021) transferred to Parker as a 10th grader in the fall of 2018 after having competed in Speech and Debate at Bonita Vista High School which has a very large and successful program.  She almost decided not to transfer to Parker because it lacked a formal debate team but was told that there had historically been “[Parliamentary] debate clubs” through which she might be able to keep competing in Speech and Debate.  Sophia’s mother Selena Epley asked Parker admissions if it might be possible to start a competitive speech and debate team at Parker and was told that it was possible.  So, Sophia decided to come to Parker.  She and her mother Selena Epley subsequently met with Marc Thiebach, then the associate head of Parker’s upper school, to discuss how a speech and debate team could be started at Parker.  Mr. Theibach also explained that at various points in Parker’s history, there had been “debate clubs” at Parker with students competing in Parliamentary Debate at San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League (SDIVSL) tournaments with the assistance of faculty members Marc Thiebach and Nancy Anderson.  How active these debate clubs were dependent on the enthusiasm of particular students and parent volunteers.

Given the burgeoning interest in growing the speech and debate team, the coaches held an information meeting for all Parker students in May 2019.  Over 40 students came to the meeting.  Applications were submitted for officer positions and Sophia Epley, Alec Sheres and Allie Zhao became the team’s president, vice president and secretary.  Then on May 30, 2019, the team received the exciting news from Mr. Thiebach that Parker was “going with an academic team, competitive model” for the debate “club.”  Mr. Thiebach soon left Parker for other opportunities but ensured that there would continue to be a school contact/advisor for the debate team.   Over the summer of 2019, Ms. Epley and Ms. Sheres communicated and met with Ms. Carrie Dilmore, the new associate head of the upper school, about institutionalizing the Speech and Debate Team as a school academic team.  There were apparently some logistical hurdles for the team with the co-presidents of the debate club wanting to revert to a club rather than a team model for debate at Parker.  Eventually Parker agreed that if Ms. Epley went through the Parker employment process to become an official non-paid Parker staff member and coach of the team and as long as there were a debate team and a debate club, the debate team could continue forward.  

Then our team president Sophia competed in varsity Lincoln-Douglas at the September 28, 2019 SDIVSL tournament.

The practice rounds held by the team as well as the Parli workshop put on by The Bishop’s School students certainly paid off.  The team’s third tournament was on October 19, 2019 and eighteen students competed—there were seven teams in novice Parliamentary Debate [Alisha Wadhwa/Owen Lewis (2022), Adam Tobin-Williams/Hayden Ghosh (2022), Aadam Awad/Zachary Partnoy (2022), Natalia Wornovitzky/Apaara Chawla (2023), Claire Harutunian/Emma Horne (2023), Alena Callahan/Alexandra Gibson (2022), Taj Gillin/Dhruv Patravali (2022)] and two varsity teams (Carly/Allie and Jayna/Trevor).  The students all had a good time and discovered that they like and want to keep competing in speech and debate!  Two freshmen--Adam and Hayden--were awarded medals for going 3-1 in their four rounds!  The team was now blessed to have many parents who were very supportive of the team, donating food for practice rounds and tournaments and serving as judges for tournaments,

The team’s fourth tournament of the 2019-20 school year took place on November 2, 2019 when five students competed.  Sophia went 3-1 in her four rounds of varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, winning a medal, while four students competed in Congress including three in the novice division [Apaara, Adam and Eva Reineck (2023)] and one in the varsity division (Ashveen).   These four students took a big risk in competing in an event without a partner and in which they had never participated and did an excellent job being prepared to argue both sides of four very complicated pieces of legislation.

Then in an exciting development, Parker’s Debate Team finally became a Speech and Debate Team when Parker students competed in an individual speech events (IE) tournament on November 16, 2019 at Rancho Bernardo High School.  The seven students [Owen Lewis (2023), Kaia Lee-Guest (2023), Ashveen, Adam, Jayna, Carly and Trevor] had an extremely successful tournament.  Though it was the first speech tournament for all of them (and Kaia's first speech or debate tournament), all of them did great against very tough competition and more importantly learned much, developed a lot of confidence in their spontaneous speaking skills and had fun!  Ashveen, Adam and Trevor were particularly brave and resilient as they all chose to compete in two events (impromptu--in which all seven of our kids competed--which requires the students to select one of three given topics/nouns/quotes/questions/current events and then give a 5 minute speech without notes after only 2 minutes of preparation as well as extemporaneous which requires students to select one of three current event topics (international in nature for Adam and national in nature for Ashveen and Trevor) and then give a 7 minute speech without notes after 30 minutes of preparation without use of the internet).

Despite being able to just have one practice session due to the winter holidays/break, Parker had nine teams compete at the January 11, 2020 league tournament.  Eight Parli teams (Alli/Carly, Jayna/Trevor, Alisha/Kaia, Adam/Theo Fernon (2022), Hayden/Jesse Smith (2022), Aadam/Zachary, Claire/Emma, Hannah Luna/Beatriz Sauerbronn (2023)) and two Public Forum teams (Mark/Alec and Natalia/Apaara) competed.  For four students, this was their very first competition in either speech or debate and they, as with everyone else on the team, were competing in an open division against very experienced teams (there are only novice divisions for the first two tournaments of each type for each season) and everyone did extraordinarily well.  Most importantly they all said that they had a lot of fun, learned a great deal, know what they will do differently next time to strengthen their performances, and want to keep competing in debate.

The team had a very successful second league speech tournament on January 25, 2020.  It was invaluable that the day before the team had special guest coaching provided by Parker parent David Marino who was a state and national level high school speech and debate competitor.  Mr. Marino had kindly volunteered to serve as a judge for our team at the Winter Classic and offered, despite his busy schedule, to assist the team as he could.  Three ninth graders (Claire, Apaara and Alisha) and three sophomores (Alec, Trevor and Mark) participated in impromptu and of those seven three (Alec, Trevor and Mark) also competed in National Extemporaneous.  Ashveen earned the distinction of being the first Parker Speech and Debate Team member to compete in a platform event (i.e. a memorized speech)--she wrote and memorized a beautiful set of vignettes as part of an Original Prose and Poetry and performed it well!

Mr. Marino was very helpful in providing some feedback and coaching for Sophia on January 31st as she was Parker’s lone Lincoln-Douglas debater at the February 1, 2020 league tournament.  She competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate going 2-2 against very tough competition.

The team worked hard preparing for the February 21-22, 2020 state qualifying (state quals) tournament at Carlsbad High School and it paid off.  Six teams competed.  A brave 9th grade Public Forum team (Apaara/Natalia) debated whether a universal basic income should replace means-tested programs.  In Parliamentary Debate Parker had five teams--Mark/Alec, Jayna/Trevor, Sophia/Adam, Carly/Allie Zhao and Claire/Emma (also 9th graders!)--compete.  

The kids made Parker proud.  All of them worked hard, took some risks in challenging themselves against very serious competition and had excellent performances.  Apaara gave a particularly well-regarded impromptu speech on funerals discussing how tragic events can bring families together and in the case of the 9-11 tragedy can bring an entire country together.  Carly astounded her first round judge by giving a speech on #moonwalking out of awkward events and then moonwalking back to her seat with 4 inch heels.  Adam gave amazing content-rich extemporaneous speeches on very obscure international issues.  Mark in only his second speech tournament scored high in both impromptu and extemporaneous rounds.  Ashveen's original prose and poetry speech was a big hit with her extraordinary gift for words and imagery.  71 students started in Impromptu and Alec and Jayna advanced to the semifinals, placing them among the top 24 students in the event.

After having his dreams of organizing an in-house Parli tournament at school dashed by the coronavirus pandemic, Alec Sheres initiated and organized a virtual tournament for novice parli teams on April 25, 2020.  We decided to include teams from Parker, The Bishop’s School and Bonita Vista High School.  Claire Harutunian/Emma Horne,  Apaara Chawla/Evan Clark, Dhruv Patravali/Taj Gillin and Hannah Luna/Owen Lewis competed.  Judges were varsity debaters from Parker and Bishop’s School.  The feedback from the competitors and judges was that the tournament was a lot of fun and well-run.

The team held its first end of season banquet on May 1st and had a great turnout of students and their families as well as VIP guests including Dr. Monica Gillespie (head of upper school), Carrie Dilmore (associate head of upper school) and Marc Thiebach (the former associate head of upper school).  The students were awarded pins (one or two depending if this was the first or second year of competing and speech and/or debate ones depending on the events in which they competed), our one graduating senior (Benjamin Sheres) was honored, anda slide show of the year was shown.  Special coaches awards were given to Carly Kalunian, Ashveen Banga and Adam Tobin-Williams.  Finally the officers for the 2020-21 year were announced:

Co-Presidents:  Sophia Epley and Alec Sheres

Fundraising Director:  Allie Zhao

Parliamentary Debate Captain:  Jayna Wadhwa

Platform Events Captain:  Ashveen Banga

Public Forum Debate Captain:  Mark Rifkin

Spontaneous Events Captain:  Trevor DePodesta

Communications Director:  Apsara Chawla

Social Media Director:  Claire Harutunian

The officers decided to hold an informational meeting in June and then to organize nine days of virtual workshops in July 2020 to introduce new and newer students to the different events with the co-presidents and team captains doing a great job of giving presentations on the different events and giving the 27 workshop participants a chance to practice doing a PF round, a Parli round, imp and extemp.  Our social media director Claire Harutunian did a great job writing up a story about the summer workshops and thanks to the school’s Matt Piechalak (from communications) the team finally got its first appearance in the school’s official social media presence in its Facebook and Instagram accounts and a story on the school’s website on July 28, 2020.  

“Parker’s Speech and Debate Team recently hosted its Summer Workshops. 

The first week focused on Public Forum and Parliamentary Debate; two partner events in which Parker students frequently compete at tournaments. The start of the second week included a guest speaker from Bonita Vista High School who helped demonstrate Lincoln Douglas debate and spoke to new members about his experiences. The students then learned about Platform Events which are prepared speeches and performances that allow competitors to showcase their creativity. Finally, the group was introduced to Spontaneous Events, including Impromptu and Extemporaneous, two events in which Parker students have enjoyed much success.

The two-week intensive series of workshops ended with an exciting SPAR (Spontaneous Argumentation) tournament. Overall, the workshops were very successful and laid a foundation for 27 new and returning members to discover the many opportunities they have while participating with the Speech and Debate Team.

We encourage all Parker Upper School students to reach out to the Team’s Co-Presidents, Sophia Epley (sepley2021@francisparker.org) and Alec Sheres (asheres2022@francisparker.org), if they are interested in joining or have any questions. We are looking forward to an exciting season this fall.”

On July 28, 2020, the team was featured for the first time in the school’s Instagram and Facebook pages as well as in Parker news.  The news article was written by Claire Harutunian, the team’s social media director, read as follows:

On October 9, 2020,  Ms. Sheres, Ms. Epley and college counselor Julio Mata met about his willingness to help coach the team and his experience as a competitor in high school speech eventsincluding DI and OPP.

We had eleven Parker students compete at the online San Diego IE [Individual (Speech) Events] Invitational Tournament on October 9th-10th that was organized by Helix, Bonita Vista and Parker speech and debate teams.  Sanjana Kumar ('24). Hrisheek Mustyala ('24) and Kavish Kondap ('24) all made the final round in Novice Impromptu and Sanjana also made the finals in novice Original Oratory.  Sanjana became the first Parker student to compete in Original Oratory and placed first in both events!  Jayna Wadhwa ('22), Alec Sheres ('22) and Trevor Depodesta ('22) all made the finals in open Extemporaneous while Trevor and Jayna also made the finals in Varsity Impromptu. Alec, Carly Kalunian ('21), Claire Harutunian ('23) and Apaara Chawla ('23) did extraordinarily well against very tough competition in Varsity Impromptu.  Ashveen Banga ('22) made the finals in Original Prose and Poetry while Eva Reineck ('23) made the final round for the second straight tournament in a row in Dramatic Interpretation.  The kids all took risks, learned a lot and had fun!!

On October 17, 2020, Parker's Speech and Debate Team had a very fun and exciting San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League Parliamentary (Parli) and Public Forum (PF) Debate tournament which was conducted online.   All three of our novice Parli teams (Kavish Kondap ('24)/Hrisheek Mustyala ('24), Sanjana Kumar ('24)/Sophia Tyrrell-Knott ('23), and Jessie Shen ('24)/Kian Lowe ('24)) had an  outstanding tournament againast very good competition.  Though it was their first tournament, Jessie and Kian received recognition (and had it been an in-person tournament would have received medals!) for going 3-1 in their four rounds of debate.

Our varsity Parli teams (Allie Zhao ('21)/Carly Kalunian ('21), Jayna Wadhwa ('22)/Trevor DePodesta ('22) and Beatriz Sauerbronn ('23)/Hannah Luna ('23)) also did well against very tough competition (the third and four rounds are power matched which means that if a team wins their first round they will go against or "hit" a team that also won their first round in the third round; if a team wins their second round they will "hit" a team that also won their second round in the fourth round). Jayna and Trevor received recognition for going 3-1 with an exciting and super competitive fourth round against their good friends from La Jolla High School.  

In Varsity Public Forum, Mark Rifkin ('22)/Alec Sheres ('22) continued their success in arguing for and against Medicare for All and received recognition for going 3-1 in their four rounds of debate.  They also had an exciting and super competitive fourth round against a team from Carlsbad High School.  

Eva Reineck '23 advanced to the finals of Dramatic Interpretation for the third tournament in a row, finishing in sixth place among a very competitive Varsity field.  Trevor advanced to the semi-finals and then the finals of Varsity Impromptu, ultimately finishing in fourth place among a very accomplished set of competitors.  Ashveen Banga '22 performed beautifully yet another wonderfully written Varsity OPP speech.

Parker had its best showing and an extraordinary one at a San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League tournament on 11/14/20.  We entered five novice Parliamentary (Parli) Debate teams and five varsity Parli teams.  Five of the students had never competed in a league tournament before.  All ten teams did well in their four rounds of debate showing that their hard work in practice rounds and their sharing of knowledge and experience made a difference!  Parker's name was announced repeatedly during last night's recognition ceremony for these amazing performances:

There were 29 novice Parli teams.  Out of the four teams that finished 3-1 as to their four rounds, two were from Parker:  Sanjana Kumar '24/Sophia Tyrrell-Knott '24 and Mahathi Gorantla '23/Roark Lacey '23 (in their first tournament ever!).  Out of the five teams that were UNDEFEATED, winning all four of their rounds, two were from Parker: Jessie Shen '24/Kian Lowe '24 and Kavish Kondap '24/Hrisheek Mustyala '24 (who was also celebrating his 14th birthday!)  In their first league tournament, Lucas Bernicker '22/Ben Effress '22 did a great job against very good competition. 

There were 36 varsity Parli teams.  Out of the only three teams that were undefeated, winning all four of their rounds, two were from Parker:  Jayna Wadhwa '22/Trevor DePodesta '22 and Claire Harutunian '23/Emma Horne '23.  The other varsity teams (Sophia Epley '21/Alec Sheres '22, Allie Zhao '21/Carly Kalunian '21, Apaara Chawla '23/Evan Clark '23 (in his first league tournament)  did extremely well against tough competition and with hard sides to defend.

Most importantly, the kids all said that they had fun and learned a lot.  To me, success in speech and debate is not defined by a student's win-loss record; success to me is students taking risks and challenging themselves, finding their voices, developing global awareness and becoming critical and informed thinkers while having a lot of fun and building a team that will endure long after we are gone.  By that measure, the Parker Speech and Team is a huge success!  I give a huge amount of credit to the officers and varsity students who generously watch and give feedback after the newer competitors do practice rounds and provide their expertise and advice.

Sophia Epley '21/Alec Sheres '22 and Jayna Wadhwa '22/Trevor DePodesta '22 competed in Parliamentary Debate, doing well against tough competition in a field of 49 teams.  Jayna and Trevor advanced to the octofinals and then the quarterfinals of Parli.  Trevor, Claire Harutunian '23, Apaara Chawla '23 and Sanjana Kumar '24 all did well competing in Impromptu with Trevor advancing to the semi-finals and then the finals, finishing second among a field of 81 competitors in a national level tournament!   Kavish Kondap '24 and Jayna competed in a combined Extemporaneous event and both had strong performances.  

Parker's presence in the world of Platform Speeches (that are created and memorized ahead of time) continues to grow in exciting ways.  Hillary Altes '22 participated in Humorous Interpretation becoming the first Parker student to compete in the event and gave a hilarious version of the Shrek story.  Ashveen Banga '22 competed in Original Prose and Poetry as did Sanjana who also participated in Original Oratory, advancing to the semi-finals among a pool of 85 competitors, and in Original Advocacy, becoming the first Parker student to compete in OA and advancing to the semi-finals and then the finals in OA.  She finished sixth among 32 entries.  All of our platform event competitors did extremely well in this national level tournament.  

At the SDIVSL 3C IE tournament on January 8-9, 2021, we  had a record high of 18 kids competing in seven different event types. All of the kids did great against tough competition late in the speech and debate season even though for many students this was their first speech tournament ever.  

Our novice competitors had a spectacular tournament.  We had ten kids compete in novice impromptu (Scott Druoin '22, Lucas Bernicker '22, Sanjana Kumar '24, Hillary Altes '22, Mahathi Gorantla '23, Preston Seay '24, Hrisheek Mustyala '24, Kavish Kondap '24, Jessie Shen '24 and Ellie Lenzen '24) all turning out great performances with challenging prompts.  Scott, Lucas, Sanjana, Hillary, Mahathi, Preston, Jessie and Ellie all made the semifinals with Hillary, Sanjana and Lucas advancing to the finals!  That meant that Parker kids constituted 33 percent of all the semifinalists in novice impromptu!  Hillary finished in first place, Sanjana in second place and Lucas in fifth place in novice impromptu, meaning that of the seven students in the finals of novice impromptu, three were from Parker!  A great showing in novice impromptu that had 63 competitors in the division!

Preston also made it to the finals of novice Original Prose and Poetry, finishing in third place with a well-acted and original piece!  Hillary and Jaclyn Owens '23 both made it to the finals of novice Humorous Interpretation with Jacyln finishing in second place and Hillary in first place!  Hrisheek, Kavish and Lucas made it to the finals of novice International Extemporaneous with Lucas finishing in first place, Kavish in fifth place and Hrisheek in sixth place. Jessie and Sanjana made it to the finals of novice National Extemporaneous with Sanjana finishing in second place and Jessie finishing in sixth place. Sanjana also made the finals of novice Original Advocacy, finishing in third place.  Sanjana was the only student who competed in three events and she made the finals in all three events!

More importantly, we had fun wearing party hats and celebrating Claire's and Alec's birthdays on Friday!

Parker's Speech and Debate Team keeps growing in exciting ways.  At the January 30, 2021 San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League (SDIVSL) Congress/Lincoln-Douglas/Policy Debate Tournament, we had five students compete.  Sanjana Kumar '24 competed for the first time in novice Congress while Alec Sheres '22 participated for the second time in varsity Congress.  Both of them had to debate four different bills/resolutions.  Lucas Bernicker '22 competed in novice Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate while phia Epley '21 and Apaara Chawla '23 participated in varsity LD.  The three of them had to debate the ethics of lethal autonomous weapons.

All the kids did well against really tough competition.  Sophia and Lucas both earned medals for going 3-1 in their four rounds of LD.  Alec and Sanjana both made it to the finals with Alec finishing third among a highly decorated field of varsity Congress competitors (including the two Bishop's students who were kind enough to virtually met a few days ago with Alec and Sanjana to give them tips about competing in Congress) while Sanjana finished fifth in novice Congress. 

In a very exciting development, Parker won its first school award in SDIVSL competition!  In most years, there are three cycles of league tournaments with each cycle consisting of (A) a Parli/Public Forum tournament, (B) a Lincoln-Douglas/Congress/Policy tournament and (C) an individual speech events tournament.  This year there were only two cycles due to the pandemic but in regular years there are three cycles.  After each cycle, the league awards schools "sweepstakes" awards for points accrued by each school's students who are finalists in IE (speech) events and who go 3-1 or 4-0 in debate events.  Yesterday, Parker was awarded the second place sweepstakes award for novice performances for this second cycle of three tournaments, finishing second behind powerhouse Carlsbad High School. Carlsbad has a full-time paid faculty coach who teaches speech and debate classes only, a parent booster club, about 100 students on their team and two classrooms filled with sweepstakes trophies as their team is the largest and most decorated one in our county and is known throughout the state.  

Fifteen members of the Parker Speech and Debate Team had the unique opportunity to compete at the virtual Stanford Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament (February 6-8) that featured 3782 competitors from 354 schools and 40 states. Against the most highly skilled competition our team has faced the Parker students performed well, learned a great deal and had a lot of fun. They had to quickly and creatively adapt to regional debating styles and approaches in this national level tournament.

Alec Sheres '22 and Mark Rifkin '21 turned in a spectacular performance in Open Parliamentary (Parli) Debate making it to the quarterfinals (thus finishing as one of the top eight teams among a field of 92 teams) and winning seven of their nine rounds. They debated diverse and complicated resolutions on hydraulic fracturing, Singapore's use of contact tracing for law enforcement purposes, U.S. sanctions on Myanmar, net neutrality and a U.S. global infrastructure development initiative.  Allie Zhao '21 and Carly Kalunian '21 did well in Open Parli as well with Allie finishing high in individual speaker points that are awarded by judges in the six preliminary rounds.

Sanjana Kumar '24 and Sophia Tyrell-Knott '23 had an incredible tournament competing in Novice Parli:  they made it to the quarterfinals, finishing as one of the top eight teams in a field of 51 teams.  They debated diverse and complicated resolutions on gig workers, US sanctions on Iran, electric vehicles, militarization of space and the presence of the US military in the South China Sea.  A reflection of their superior speaking skills were Sanjana's first place finish and Sophia's ninth place finish in speaker points among a field of 102 students!  Jessie Snen '24 and Kian Lowe '24 also did well in Novice Parli against tough and aggressive competition.

Trevor DePodesta '21 and Jayna Wadhwa '22 both made the semi-finals and then the finals of Varsity Impromptu which featured the top six students among a field of 59 students from all over the country.  (It was incredibly hard to make it to finals in Impromptu and yet Parker had two of the six students in finals!).  Trevor finished fifth and Jayna sixth overall.  Trevor also finished third in Varsity Spar (spontaneous argumentation). Jayna was also a quarterfinalist in Varsity National Extemporaneous.  Also making the finals in a speech event was Kavish Kondap '24 who finished in fourth place for Novice International Extemporaneous and also did well in Novice Spar.  Apaara Chawla '23 (JV Impromptu), Eva Reineck '23 (JV Dramatic Interpretation) and Hrisheek Mustyala '24 (Novice Spar and Novice Impromptu) also had great performances against tough competition.  

Last but not least Sophia Epley '21 competed in open CA Lincoln-Douglas (LD), debating lethal autonomous weapons and advancing to the double octofinals.  She thus finished among the top 32 competitors in a field of 82 students.

After many practice sessions including scrimmages against Bishop’s School, Carlsbad High School and La Jolla High School, Parker had an outstanding Parli state quals tournament on February 19 to 20, 2021.  There were 61 teams overall.  Parker entered ten teams consisting of Mahathi Gorantla ‘23/Roark Lacey ‘23, Beatriz Sauerbronn ‘23/Hannah Luna ‘23, Jessie Shen ‘24/Kian Lowe ‘24, Claire Harutunian ‘23/Emma Horne ‘23, Carly Kalunian ‘21/Allie Zhao ‘21, Kavish Kondap ‘24/Hrisheek Mustyala ‘24, Sanjana Kumar ‘24/Sophia Tyrrell-Knott ‘23, Lucas Bernicker ‘22/Ben Effress ‘22, Jayna Wadhwa ‘22/Trevor DePodesta ‘21, and Alec Sheres ‘22./Mark Rifkin ‘22.   The first six rounds were double elimination, meaning that once a team lost two rounds they were no longer competing.  It was very impressive that eight of our ten Parli teams advanced to the third round, six of our teams to the fourth round and five of our teams to the fifth round (consisting of 21 teams).  We had three teams make it to the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds:  Alec Sheres/Mark Rifkin, Jayna Wadhwa/Trevor DePodesta and Lucas Bernicker/Ben Effress.  That meant that of the remaining seven teams vying in the final rounds for the five spots in the State Tournament in Parli, there were three Parker teams. Mark/Alec and Lucas/Ben were the only teams in a field of 61 to finish the first 6 preliminary rounds undefeated.Lucas Bernicker '22 and Ben Effress '22 finished in first place, Jayna Wadhwa '22 and Trevor DePodesta '21 finished in third place, and Mark Rifkin '22 and Alec Sheres '22 finished in fifth place out of the 61 teams. 

The following weekend was state quals in individual events (speech) with the following amazing performances--Humorous Interpretation:  Three Parker students made it to the finals--Jessie Shen '24, Jaclyn Owens '23 and Eva Reineck  Impromptu:  Trevor DePodesta '21 made it to the finals; Jayna Wadhwa '22, Hillary Altes '22 and Kavish Kondap '24 made the semi-finals.  International Extemp:  Lucas Bernicker '22 made it to the finals; Alec Sheres '22 made the semi-finals. National Extemp:  Jayna Wadhwa '22 made it to the finals; Trevor DePodesta '21 made the semi-finals.Oratorical Interpretation:  Ashveen Banga '22 made the semi-finals.Original Advocacy:  Sanjana Kumar '24 made the semi-finals.

The last weekend of State Quals (March 5-6) was the final qualifying tournament during which we saw strong performances in Lincoln-Douglas by Sophia Epley '21 and Lucas Bernicker ' 22. Sophia Epley was the only LD competitor to enter the elimination rounds with an undefeated record of 6-0!.  Sophia made the finals and finished third among a field of 52 competitors. Alec Sheres '22 and Sanjana Kumar "24 competed in congressional debate, with Alec making it to the finals in congress.  

Sanjana, Lucas, and Alec are to be recognized for competing in ALL three state qualifying tournaments (3 weekends in a row), a feat to say the least!

Last year, Parker qualified one student for state (Jayna). This year, Parker has qualified two Parli teams, one LD competitor and five students competing in  IE's. To say we are proud is an understatement! 

The following students will be attending the State Championship on April 23-25:

Sophia Epley '21 - Lincoln Douglas debate

Jayna Wadhwa '22 and Trevor DePodesta '21 - Parliamentary debate (team)

Mark Rifkin '22 and Alec Sheres '22 - Parliamentary debate (team)

Trevor DePodesta '21 - Impromptu 

Ashveen Banga '22 - Oratorical Interpretation

Jessie Shen '24, Jaclyn Owens '23 and Eva Reineck '23 - Humorous Interpretation

*(Alec Sheres also qualified in congress, Lucas Bernicker is 1st alternate in international extemp, and Sanjana Kumar is 1st alternate in Original Advocacy)

The Parker Speech & Debate Team had a fun and very successful virtual Southern District (National Tournament) qualifying tournament for debate and speech events on March 19-20, 2021.  We had 12 students compete:  Alec Sheres '22/Mark Rifkin '22 competed in Public Forum debate while Sophia Epley '21 and Lucas Bernicker '22 participated in Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate.  Trevor DePodesta '21 and Jayna Wadhwa '22 competed in National Extemporaneous (NX) while Lucas, Sanjana Kumar '24, Hrisheek Mustyala '24 and Kavish Kondap '24 participated in International Extemporaneous (IX).  Hillary Sheres '22 competed in both Humorous Interpretation (HI) and Informative.  Eva Reineck '23 participated in HI and Dramatic Interpretation (DI).  Jessie Shen '24 competed in HI and Original Oratory.  Students from multiple counties in Southern California competed at this "nat quals" two day tournament.  For the first time, Parker qualified students for the National Tournament that will be held June 13-18!

Sophia Epley '21 finished first in Lincoln-Douglas debate and qualified for the National Tournament.  She qualified for Nationals in LD thirty-five years after her mom and coach qualified for Nationals in LD!

We are truly indebted to the many people who made this nat quals tournament such a success for Parker; this includes the assistant coaches (Ms. Danica Sheres, Mr. Prem Kumar and Mr. Julio Mata), parents who provided judging for the tournament, the officers who mentored the newer competitors and the students who provided each other with support, useful feedback and encouragement.  We are deeply appreciative that Ms. Nancy Anderson-Bruno volunteered to judge at the tournament on Sunday night and joined us at the awards ceremony.

We are pleased to announce that these seven Parker students have qualified to compete at the National Speech and Debate Championship Tournament to held in virtual Iowa in June:  

- Sophia Epley '21 went undefeated in Lincoln-Douglas debate, finishing in first place

- Alec Sheres '22 placed third in the Senate chamber of Congress

- Jayna Wadhwa '22 and Trevor DePodesta '22 both qualified for Nationals in U.S. Extemporaneous Speaking

- Lucas Bernicker '22 finished in 4th place in International Extemporaneous Speaking, qualifying for Nationals

- Hillary Altes' 22 finished in second place in Humorous Interpretation, qualifying for Nationals

- Sanjana Kumar '24 as a 9th grader finished in 6th place in the House chambers of Congress, qualifying to compete at Nationals as a member of a World Schools team

It is also exciting that Parker qualified ten students for the California State Speech and Debate Championship Tournament that will be held virtually the last week of April:

- Sophia in LD debate

- Jayna/Trevor and Alec/Mark Rifkin '22 in Parliamentary Debate

- Ashveen Banga '22 in Oratorical Interpretation

- Eva Reineck '23, Jaclyn Owens '23 and Jessie Shen '24 in Humorous Interpretation

- Sanjana in Original Advocacy

-Trevor in Impromptu

The State Speech and Debate Tournament hosted by the CA High School Speech Association took place virtually the last week of April 2021.  Ten Parker students competed in primary events while two Parker kids participated in supplemental speech events. 

.2021-22 SCHOOL YEAR

Officers

President:  Alec Sheres ‘22

Vice President for Speech:  Jayna Wadhwa ‘22

Vice President for Debate:  Mark Rifkin ‘22

Platform Events Captain:  Ashveen Banga ‘22

Interpretation Events Captain:  Hillary Altes ‘22

Spontaneous Events Captain:  Kavish Kondap ‘24

LD Captain:  Lucas Bernicker ‘22

Parliamentary Debate Co-Captain:  Claire Harutunian ‘23 

Parliamentary Debate Co-Captain:  Jessie Shen ‘24

Congress Captain:  Sanjana Kumar ‘24

Social Media Director:  Mahathi Gorantla ‘23

The Parker Speech and Debate Team had a fun and successful first tournament of the year on 9/11/21.  Two varsity teams and three novice teams competed in Parliamentary Debate in which teams are given a side and a resolution and then have 20 minutes to prepare before debating.  Sanjana Kumar '24/Dhruv Patravali '22 and Kavish Kondap '24/Hrisheek Mustyala '24 did great in the varsity division against tough competition.  Three novice teams--Keira Doshi '25/Ryan Hu '25, Ethan Kassar '23'Ryan McCormick '23 and Ellia Lee-Guest '25/Sanya Prasad '25--competed in debate for the first time and were recognized at the awards ceremony for going 3-1 in their four rounds!  These three Parker novice teams were among only five teams that went 3-1!  They debated complicated subjects ranging from the power of the Supreme Court and the President, universal pre-K education, refugee policies and vaccination mandates.  A big shout out also to the team's officers and coaches who helped prepare our students well with many many hours of workshops and practice rounds.

The Parker Speech and Debate Team had a very fun and successful first invitational tournament on September 18-19, 2021.  The virtual Jack Howe Memorial Invitational Tournament featured teams from two countries and 25 states.  Parker was aptly represented in numerous events.

In Congress, Sanjana Kumar '24 had a magnificent tournament, advancing to the semifinals and then the finals, finishing in 8th place among a field of 78 competitors.  Kavish Kondap '24 also had a great tournament, advancing to the semifinals of Congress in his first Congress tournament.

In Parliamentary Debate, Alec Sheres '22 and Mark Rifkin '22 went 5-1 in the preliminary rounds and advanced into the quarterfinals, finishing among the top eight teams out of a field of 63 teams.  Claire Harutunian '23, Emma Horne '23, Sophia Tyrrell-Knott '23 and Ethan Kassar '23 all competed in Parli, doing well against very tough competition.

In CA Lincoln-Douglas, Lucas Bernicker '22 went 5-1 in the preliminary rounds and advanced into the octofinals, finishing among the top 16 teams out of a field of 68 competitors.  Jessie Shen '24 had a great first LD tournament.  Lucas and Jessie debated whether the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to reduce intellectual property protections for medicines.

In speech events, Hillary Altes '22 advanced into the semifinals of Impromptu while Apaara Chawla '23, Hrisheek Mustyala '24, Sanjana and Kavish also competed in the event.  Ashveen Banga '22 competed in Oratorical Interpretation while Roark Lacey '23 participated in extemporaneous speaking in the novice division. 

The Parker Speech and Debate Team competed at its first in-person tournament in 18 months at the San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League #1C tournament on September 25th at Helix Charter High School.  It was so much fun to be in-person again!!

Sanjana Kumar '24 competed in Varsity Congress and generously agreed to serve as a Parliamentary Officer during a round when volunteers were needed.  Lucas Bernicker '22 went 3-1 in his four rounds of varsity Lincoln-Douglas, earning a medal and recognition at the awards ceremony.  Giana Bove '24 (mentored by Lucas, our LD captain) in her first speech or debate tournament ever went 3-1 as well in novice Lincoln-Douglas and was also recognized at the awards ceremony and with a medal!   Coach Selena Epley, in her debut as the SDIVSL co-Vice President for Debate and tournament director, had a challenging but exhilarating 13 hours at the school.  Coach Prem Kumar also generously donated his day to coaching, judging and helping in Tabroom.  

The Parker Speech and Debate Team had a wonderful in-person individual events (speech) tournament on October 9th at Carlsbad High School.  We had seven students compete including two newcomers!

Hillary Altes '22, Scott Drouin '22, Claire Harutunian '23 and Kian Lowe '24 all competed in a super competitive varsity Impromptu division, all doing well.  Hillary advanced to the finals, finishing fifth!  Yuvraj Anand '25, Neil Rao '24 and Ryan Hu '25 competed in the novice impromptu division (which had the most competitors of all of the events) with all of them turning in very effective performances.  Yuvi advanced to the finals, finishing in 6th place, in his first speech or debate tournament ever.  Ryan also competed in the novice HI division which required him to memorize a comedic piece and perform multiple characters.  He advanced to the finals, finishing in 5th place!  Many thanks to the competitors, the officers who helped prepare them for the event, our parent judges and our awesome coaches (featured below with our finalists is assistant coach Prem Kumar).

 The Parker Speech and Debate Team had a very exciting SDIVSL parliamentary debate tournament on October 23, 2021 at Helix Charter High School.  We had seven teams compete:

Varsity:  Claire Harutunian '23/Emma Horne '23 and Kavish Kondap '24/Hrisheek Mustyala '24

Novice:  Ethan Kassar '23/Ryan McCormick '23, Samuel Dago Fernandez '24/Neil Rao '24, Keira Doshi '25/Ryan Hu '25, Ella Lee-Guest '25/Sanya Prasad '25 and Yuvi Anand '25/Gavin Brittain '25

We were super proud of Ella/Sanya and Samuel/Neil for going 3–1 in novice Parli and being awarded medals!!

The Parker Speech and Debate Team had a super fun SDIVSL individual events (speech) tournament on November 6, 2021 at Canyon Crest Academy.  We had 15 kids compete in 25 events.

We had seven students compete in varsity Impromptu (Hillary Altes '22, Hayden Ghosh '22, Apaara Chawla '23, Sanjana Kumar '24, Kavish Kondap '24, Kian Lowe '24, Hrisheek Mustyala '24) with five of them advancing to the semifinals (Hillary, Hayden, Apaara, Sanjana and Kavish).  We had six students compete in novice Impromptu (Neil Rao '24, Samuel Dago Fernandez '24, Yuvi Anand '25, Ryan Hu '25, Dominic Ciccimaro '25, Sanya Prasad '25) with three of them (Neil, Samuel and Yuvi) advancing to the semifinals.  Neil also made it to the finals, finishing in 2nd place overall in a field of 44 competitors!

A photo of six of our Impromptu semifinalists:

We had a large group of kids competing in Extemporaneous with six competing in varsity International Extemp (Sanjana, Kavish, Hayden, Hrisheek and Adam Tobin-Williams '22) and one in novice IX (Neil).  Sanjana advanced to the finals of IX, finishing in 5th place overall!  Samuel competed in novice National Extemp and advance to the finals, finishing in 7th place overall in his first speech tournament. 

Ashveen Banga '22 competed in varsity Oratorical Interpretation while Apaara and Sanjana both participated in varsity Original Advocacy.  All three turned in strong performances.  Ryan also competed in novice Humorous Interpretation, advancing to the finals and accomplishing the rare feat of having all three judges in the final round rank him in first place.  He was crowned the tournament champion in novice HI!  Hillary also competed in varsity Humorous Interpretation, advancing to the finals and finishing in 4th place overall!

The Parker Speech and Debate Team had a small but mighty presence at the San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League (SDIVSL) #2C Lincoln-Douglas/Congress/Policy Debate Tournament on 11/20/21.  The tournament was conducted virtually.  We had Alec Sheres '22 compete in a very competitive varsity Congress division, Ethan Kassar '23 participate in novice Congress and Sanjana Kumar '24 trying Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate for the first time.  Sanjana went an impressive 3-1 in varsity LD debating both sides of "Resolved: A just government ought to recognize an unconditional right of workers to strike."  Unfortunately, since Coach Epley was serving as the tournament director as the co-Vice President for Debate of the SDIVSL, she was not able to take a photo of Sanjana at the awards ceremony!

The Parker Speech and Debate Team fielded a small but very impressive squad at the national level Winter Classic Invitational  Tournament that was held virtually from 12/3/21 through 12/5/21.  The Invitational, hosted by La Costa Canyon School, attracted 781 students from 100 schools and 17 states.  Parker had five students compete.  

Eva Reineck '23 turned in a great performance and just missed making the finals in Humorous Interpretation with a fun piece on cat videos.  We had a record number of Parker students competing in Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate: our LD captain Lucas Bernicker '22, Sanjana Kumar '24, Kavish Kondap '24 and Jessie Shen '24. This was only the second time Jessie and Sanjana had competed in LD and the very first time Kavish had participated in LD.  Lucas went 5-1 in the six preliminary rounds after being matched in every round against a competitor who had won of their rounds.  Sanjana, Kavish and Jessie went 4-2 in their preliminary rounds.  And amazingly enough, after a lot of hard work by and collaborative efforts among the four debaters, Lucas, Sanjana, Kavish and Jessie all advanced to the double octofinals!  This mean that Lucas, Sanjana, Kavish and Jessie were among the top 32 competitors out of 106 competitors.  

Lucas and Jessie won their double octofinal rounds, advancing to the octofinals! That means that they finished among the top 16 competitors in a field of 106 LD debaters.  

More importantly, all of the Parker students learned a great deal and had fun.

Parker was the only school to have four students advance to the double octofinals in LD in this prestigious tournament. 

Despite the challenges of returning back to virtual competition, the Parker Speech and Debate Team had a very successful league 3A parliamentary debate tournament on January 8, 2022.  Four first-year teams from Parker competed in open division Parliamentary Debate against very seasoned varsity teams and did extremely well.  

Ethan Kassar '23/Ryan McCormick '23, Neil Rao '24/Samuel Dago Fernandez '24, Ruby Adler '25/Preston Seay '24 and Keira Doshi '25/Ryan Hu '25 performed extraordinarily well against tough competition.  However, what makes the coaches even more proud is how our students conducted themselves with grace, kindness and dignity.  One example of the true character of our students was described by one of Neil's and Sam's judges in a ballot from today; the judge wrote:  "OPP [Neil and Samuel] is commended highly for sportsmanship and for valuing fair play. The decision to give PROP a full restart after a technical glitch upended one of their rounds at the two-minute mark was the right one. Whatever you may have been thinking, the speed and graciousness with which you made that decision speaks volumes about character. Class. Act."

The Parker Speech and Debate Team put on some amazing performances at the San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League (SDIVSL) 3B Individual Events (speech) tournament on 1/29/22.  We had 15 kids compete in open division speech events (no novice divisions were offered) in this virtual tournament.   We had a number of Impromptu competitors (Hillary Altes '22, Apaara Chawla '23, Claire Harutunian '23, Mahathi Gorantla '23, Sanjana Kumar '24, Jessie Shen '24, Neil Rao '24, Yuvi Anand '25, and Ryan Hu '25) with Hillary, Jessie, Yuvi, Ryan and Eva Reineck '23 competing in Humorous Interpretation.  Parker had its first entries ever in Duo Interpretation with two pairs entered:  Keira Doshi '25 and Ryan and Jessie and Preston Seay '24.  Ashveen Banga '22 competed in Oratorical Interpretation while Sanjana competed in Original Oratory.  Four Parker students--Claire, Sanjana, Hayden Ghosh '22 and Samuel Dago Fernandez '24--competed in National Extemporareous.  

Particularly noteworthy performances included:

- Claire Harutunian '23 advanced to the semifinals of National Extemporaneous (NX) and Impromptu and then to the finals of Impromptu, finishing fifth out of 89 competitors in the most competitive event!  Hayden Ghosh '22 and Sanjana Kumar '24 also advanced to the semifinals of NX. 

- Jessie Shen '24 and Ryan Hu '25 advanced to the finals of Humorous Interpretation with Ryan finishing in 6th place overall and Jessie as the CHAMPION of the event!

- Sanjana Kumar '24 advanced to the semifinals of Impromptu, Original Advocacy and National Extemp and then to the finals of OA, finishing in 5th place overall!

- Jessie Shen '24/Preston Seay '24 and Keira Doshi '25/Ryan Hu '25 advanced to the semifinals of Duo Interpretation with Jessie/Preston making it to the final round and finishing in SECOND PLACE!! 

- Sanjana Kumar '24 advanced to the semifinals of Impromptu, Original Advocacy and National Extemp and then to the finals of OA, finishing in 5th place overall!

- Jessie Shen '24/Preston Seay '24 and Keira Doshi '25/Ryan Hu '25 advanced to the semifinals of Duo Interpretation with Jessie/Preston making it to the final round and finishing in SECOND PLACE!! 

- Ashveen Banga '22 advanced to the semifinals and then the finals of Oratorical Interpretation, finishing in 4th place overall!  One of Ashveen's semifinals judges wrote this about her performance:  " Good tonal inflection and use of motion. Very solid overall. I felt that you did the best job of authentically conveying the emotions of the original author. Excellent job! Definitely worthy of the top rank!"

The Parker Speech and Debate Team put on an excellent performance at the virtual San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League (SDIVSL) 3C Lincoln-Douglas (Congress/Policy) debate tournament on 2/5/22.  

We had four students compete in open division Lincoln-Douglas debate:  our LD captain Lucas Bernicker '22, Sanjana Kumar '24, Kavish Kondap '24 and Giana Bove '24.  

It was super exciting that Lucas, Kavish and Giana all went 3-1 in their four rounds, earning a medal and being recognized at the awards ceremony.

The Parker Speech and Debate Team had a very challenging, educational and successful time competing at the virtual Palm Classic Invitational on February 12-13, 2022.  The statistics of the tournament are impressive in themselves:

Schools 174

Entries 1177

Individual Competitors 1459

Judges 685

States 26

Even more impressive is how well our students did on this national stage.  We had three varsity Parliamentary Debate ("Parli") teams (Mark Rifkin '22/Alec Sheres '22, Sanjana Kumar '24/Sophia Tyrrell-Knott '23 and Jessie Shen '24/Kavish Kondap '24) and two novice Parli teams (Ruby Adler '25/Ella Lee-Guest '25 and Neil Rao '24/Samuel Dago Fernandez '24) as well as two speech competitors:  Jaclyn Owens '23 in varsity Humorous Interpretation (HI) and Ryan Hu '25 in novice HI.

After many practice sessions including a very helpful one conducted by Ms. Rachel Krause, our Parli teams turned in wonderful performances.  In varsity Parli, Mark/Alec went 5-1 in the preliminary rounds, advancing to the quarterfinals as the number one seeded team and thus finishing in the top eight teams.  Alec was ranked number two out of all 76 competitors in speaker points/awards while Sanjana ranked fifth and Sophia tenth!   Sanjana/Sophia just missed making the quarterfinals by one slot.  

Ruby/Ella also went 5-1 in the preliminary rounds and advanced to the quarterfinals as the second seeded team, finishing among the top eight teams in novice Parli.  Ruby was ranked fourth and Ella tenth in speaker awards among the 58 competitors.  Neil/Sam went 4-2 in the preliminary rounds, also advancing to the quarterfinals and finishing among the top eight teams in novice Parli in this national level tournament.  Neil was ranked number three and Samuel number five in speaker awards.  This was an amazing performance by our Parli teams.

Last by not least, Jaclyn won a prestigious bid to the Tournament of Champion by placing SECOND in this national level tournament in varsity HI while Ryan finished an impressive THIRD in novice HI.  They were both recognized in the awards slideshow!

Ryan Hu and Jackie also competed at the prestigious and virtual UC Berkeley Invitational on February 18-21, 2022 in open HI.  Jackie advanced to the semifinals in a competitive field of 52 competitors.  

The Parker Speech and Debate Team is excited to announce the results of the three San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League (SDIVSL) state qualifying tournaments in which our students competed.  After many in-person and virtual practice sessions, we had 22 students participate at the three tournaments.  We are thrilled that nine of our students qualified to compete at the California High School Speech Association state championships on 4/29 to 5/1.  The tournament will be virtual.

At the 2/25 to 2/26 Parliamentary Debate state qualifying tournament at Carlsbad High School, we had five teams compete.  Jayna Wadhwa '22/Alec Sheres '22, Sanjana Kumar '24/Sophia Tyrrell-Knott '23, Neil Rao '24/Samuel Dago Fernandez '24, Ruby Adler '25/Ella Lee-Guest '25, and Yuvi Anand '25/Ryan Hu '25 competed in this double-elimination tournament.  Sanjana and Sophia went 4-1 in the preliminary rounds, advancing to the quarterfinals round in which they won every single one of the three judges' ballots and also becoming one of six Parli teams that qualified outright to compete at State.

We had fourteen students compete at the 3/4-3/5 Individual Events (speech) tournament at Carlsbad High School.

Nine Parker students (Claire Harutunian '23, Mahathi Gorantla '23, Kavish Kondap '24, Sanjana, Jessie Shen '24, Hrisheek Mustyala '24, Yuvi Anand '25, Sanya Prasad '25 and Ryan) competed in Impromptu with Sanjana and Kavish advancing to the semifinals.  

We had five students competed in extemporaneous speaking (Kavish and Hrisheek in International Extemp and Claire, Sanjana and Samuel Dago Fernandez '24 in National Extemp) with Claire, Sanjana and Kavish advancing to the semifinals; Kavish has now qualified to compete at State in IX!

Ashveen Banga '22 and Eva Reineck '23 competed in Oratorical Interpretation with Eva advancing to the semifinals.  Sanjana also competed in Original Advocacy.  We had five students (Hillary Altes '22, Eva, Jessie, Ryan and Yuvi) compete in Humorous Interpretation with all five of them advancing to the semifinals and with Jessie and Ryan making it to the finals!  Jessie finished in fourth place and Ryan in second place with both qualifying outright to compete at State.   In Duo Interpretation, Hillary and Maggie Weller '22 advanced to the semifinals and then the finals, finishing in second place.  

Five students (Lucas Bernicker '22, Alec, Sanjana, Jessie and Kavish) competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate at the 3/11-3/12 state qualifying tournament which also consisted of a double-elimination format and was held at Helix Charter High School. Jessie made it to round 4, finishing among the top 26 competitors.  Alec and Kavish made it to round 5, finishing among the top 16 competitors.  Lucas and Sanjana made it to round 6, finishing among the top 9 competitors.  Lucas finished in fourth place, qualifying outright for State in LD.  Alec also qualified to compete in LD at State!

We were deeply appreciative of the many people who made our state quals participation possible and so successful and fun: our volunteer head coach (Selena Epley), assistant coaches (Prem Kumar and Danica Sheres), our student officers, our generous parents (we had so many snacks at our team tables at one of the tournaments that other students thought that we were the concessions stand!), our volunteer judges, and the Parker faculty/staff who kindly assisted our team including Carrie Dilmore, Julio Mata and Rachel Krause.  

Written by Coach Danica Sheres and Coach Prem Kumar:  “Not only did Parker students have amazing performances at the three SDIVSL state qualifying tournaments, but those of us who attended the awards ceremony on Saturday evening were in for a real treat. 

Our very own Francis Parker Coach Selena Epley had the honor of being named the San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League "Coach of the Year"!

This is an incredible honor to receive, as all coaches from the 27 high schools within our league vote for the speech and debate coach who has made the greatest impact on both the students and our league as a whole. 

As a volunteer coach, Judge Epley has worked tirelessly over the past four years to build a speech and debate team at Parker that has become a competitive force to be reckoned with on both a regional and national level. Our students are so very lucky to have such a dedicated, selfless person willing to give her time. Her impact on them is immeasurable and we believe she is truly changing lives with the work she does with our kids.  

And not just our kids, the whole auditorium (of speech and debate competitors) was chanting her name after the award was announced! She is truly loved by all. Parker should be so proud. We certainly are."

The Parker Speech and Debate Team had a small but mighty group of students who competed at the Southern California District National Qualifying Tournament.  Students from schools located in San Diego, San Bernandino and Orange Counties competed for the opportunity to compete at the NSDA National Tournament in Kentucky in June.  Lucas Bernicker '22 and Kavish Kondap '24 competed in Lincoln-Douglas Debate while we had four students--Jaclyn Owens '23, Eva Reineck '23, Jessie Shen '24 and Ryan Hu '25--participate in Humorous Interpretation.

It was quite a feat that all four of our HI competitors advanced to the semifinals in this most competitive of tournaments!  

We were thrilled that Jaclyn and Jessie advanced to the FINALS of HI!

And drum roll.....JACLYN FINISHED IN 5TH PLACE OVERALL WHILE JESSIE TOOK SECOND IN HI, THEREBY QUALIFYING FOR NATIONALS!

On April 8, 2022, Sanjana Kumar ‘24 was the sole Parker student who competed in the Southern California District Congress national qualifying tournament which offered two events:  the House and the Senate with the Senate consisting of each school’s strongest competitors in Congress.  It was amazing that Sanjana, as only a tenth grader, finished in first place as the Senate champion, thus qualifying for the National Tournament!

The virtual CHSSA State Tournament took place on April 29 through May 1.  Due to illness, Hillary/Maggie and Lucas did not compete.  Sanjana/Sophia competed in Parli, Jessie (who finished 20th just missing the semifinals by two slots) and Ryan competed in HI and Kavish in IX (who finished 19th just missing the semifinals by one slot).  

The team had its first in-person end of the year banquet with a taco catering stand generously subsidized by Parker and a large number of students and their family members attending.  It was announced that Ms. Epley was going to be stepping down as the head coach but that she, Mr. Kumar and Ms. Sheres would continue to coaching the team.  The three Coaches Awards for commitment, performance and character were awarded to Hillary Altes ‘22, Sophia Tyrrell-Knott ‘23 and Ryan Hu ‘25.  

After a very competitive process, the officers for the 2022-23 school year were announced:

President:  Sanjana Kumar ‘24

Spontaneous Events Captain:  Claire Harutunian ‘23

Platform Events Captain:  Eva Reineck ‘23

Interpretation Events Captain:  Jaclyn Owens ‘23

Parliamentary Debate Captain:  Sophia Tyrrell-Knott ‘23

LD Captain:  Jessie Shen ‘24

Communications Director:  Samuel Dago Fernandez ‘24

The NSDA National Tournament was held, in-person for the first time in three years, in Louisville, Kentucky.  Mr. Kumar served as the coach and a judge while Ms. Shen served as a judge for June 13 through 17, 2022 tournament.  Jessie blazed through the first six preliminary rounds in HI and then broke into the two octofinal rounds, finishing among the top 60 students in the country.  Sanjana broke into the semifinals of Senate, finishing among the top 72 students in the event.  Both were given awards for their excellent performances.

The Parker Speech and Debate Team had a wonderful first San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League tournament on 9/10/22 at Helix Charter High School.  We had five varsity Parliamentary Debate teams:  Sanjana Kumar '24/Sophia Tyrrell-Knott '23, Kavish Kondap '24/Yuvi Anand '25, Neil Rao '24/Samuel Dago Fernandez '24, Ryan Hu '25/London Maslow '25, and Ruby Adler '25/Ella Lee-Guest '25.  We also had two brave novice Parli teams:  Luca Said '26/Kobi Oldenburg '26 and Mark Blair '26/Asher Sheres '26.  Everyone had a fun time engaging in thought-provoking and interesting debates on subjects as varied as the separation of powers to increasing aid to Africa.

All of the teams did well against some really strong teams.  Special shoutout to the five teams that received formal recognition and medals for going 3-1 in their four rounds:

Sanjana/Sophia, Kavish/Yuvi, Neil/Sam, Ruby/Ella and Mark/Asher!!

The Parker Speech and Debate Team had an excellent San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League tournament on 9/17/22 at Canyon Crest Academy.  The team had a historic number of Lincoln-Douglas debate competitors.  For the first time, the team had five varsity LD competitors and one novice LD competitor for a total of six LD debaters.  Jessie Shen '24, Sanjana Kumar '24, Kavish Kondap '24, Sanya Prasad '25 and Ryan Hu '25 competed in varsity LD while newcomer Liora Berg '24 competed in novice LD.  All of them had to argue for and against the resolution of "Resolved: The United States ought to implement a single-payer universal healthcare system."  Jessie, our LD captain, did an excellent job leading the team's case-building efforts and training Liora, Sanya and Ryan for their first LD tournament.  

 We were proud of how well all six students did against tough competition.  Sanjana was awarded a trophy for going undefeated in her four rounds--only four competitors went 4-0 among the 43 competitors!  Liora in her first tournament ever went 3-1 in her four rounds, winning a medal!

 Eleven Parker students participated in the San DIego Imperial Valley Speech League Individual Events (speech) Tournament at Carlsbad High School on October 1, 2022.  Parker's own Coach Epley served as the tournament director.  Our three coaches and student speech captains--Spontaneous Events Captain Claire Harutuian, Platform Events Captain Eva Reineck and Interpretation Events Jackie Owens--did a phenomenal job in helping to get our team ready for the first IE tournament of the year.  

We had eleven students compete in varsity impromptu (Claire '23, Jessie Shen '24, Neil Rao '24, Samuel Dago Fernandez '24, Sanya Prasad '25, Ryan Hu '25, Keira Doshi '25 and Yuvi Anand '25) and three competed in novice impromtu for the first time (Adi Abraham '24,  London Maslow '25 and Mark Blair '26).  All did really well in the most competitive event of the tournament.  Neil, Sanya, Claire, Keira, Adi, London and Mark all received 1s (first place rankings) in at least one of their preliminary impromptu rounds. Neil advanced to the varsity impromptu finals, finishing in 6th place in a field of 65 competitors while newcomer Mark was the novice impromptu champion after earning all 1s (first place rankings) in his three preliminary rounds. Claire and Sanya also competed in varsity National Extemporaneous (NX) with Claire finishing among the top nine students in a very competitive event.  London in his first speech tournament advanced to the finals of novice NX, finishing in third place!

Jessie Shen, who broke into elimination rounds at Nationals in June in Humorous Interpretation (HI), was once again crowned the varsity HI champion, racking up an astonishing number of number 1 rankings throughout the four rounds.  Keira and Ryan competed in Dual Interpretation with a beautiful and dramatic piece, earning a number 1 ranking in their first round.  Yuvi, competing for the first time in Informative, advanced to the finals of varsity Informative, finishing in 4th place with a memorable and unique speech about Kendrick Lamar (educating his judges and his coach about the artist's existence and importance!).  Mark advanced to the finals of novice declamation, wowing the judges with President Kennedy's inaugural address, and finishing in third place.  

Overall, the day was long (students arrived at 7:15 AM and the awards ceremony was not over until after 10 PM) but so worth it in terms of risk taking, confidence building, skill acquiring and fun times with friends.  Many thanks to Coach Sheres for arriving super early to help get our students prepared and with tournament duties and to Luisa Dago Fernandez for supplying a plentitude of fun and healthy snacks and drinks and delivering pizza for lunch fo the kids.  Thanks also to Coach Sheres, Coach Kumar and student officers (Claire, Eva, Jackie, Jessie, Sanjana and Kavish) who helped get our kids ready for this tournament.  We also appreciate Parker's continuing support of the team

We had eleven students compete in varsity impromptu (Claire '23, Jessie Shen '24, Neil Rao '24, Samuel Dago Fernandez '24, Sanya Prasad '25, Ryan Hu '25, Keira Doshi '25 and Yuvi Anand '25) and three competed in novice impromtu for the first time (Adi Abraham '24,  London Maslow '25 and Mark Blair '26).  All did really well in the most competitive event of the tournament.  

 Neil, Sanya, Claire, Keira, Adi, London and Mark all received 1s (first place rankings) in at least one of their preliminary impromptu rounds. Neil advanced to the varsity impromptu finals, finishing in 6th place in a field of 65 competitors while newcomer Mark was the novice impromptu champion after earning all 1s (first place rankings) in his three preliminary rounds. Claire and Sanya also competed in varsity National Extemporaneous (NX) with Claire finishing among the top nine students in a very competitive event.  London in his first speech tournament advanced to the finals of novice NX, finishing in third place!

Jessie Shen, who broke into elimination rounds at Nationals in June in Humorous Interpretation (HI), was once again crowned the varsity HI champion, racking up an astonishing number of number 1 rankings throughout the four rounds.  Keira and Ryan competed in Dual Interpretation with a beautiful and dramatic piece, earning a number 1 ranking in their first round.  Yuvi, competing for the first time in Informative, advanced to the finals of varsity Informative, finishing in 4th place with a memorable and unique speech about Kendrick Lamar (educating his judges and his coach about the artist's existence and importance!).  Mark advanced to the finals of novice declamation, wowing the judges with President Kennedy's inaugural address, and finishing in third place.  

Overall, the day was long (students arrived at 7:15 AM and the awards ceremony was not over until after 10 PM) but so worth it in terms of risk taking, confidence building, skill acquiring and fun times with friends.  Many thanks to Coach Sheres for arriving super early to help get our students prepared and with tournament duties and to Luisa Dago Fernandez for supplying a plentitude of fun and healthy snacks and drinks and delivering pizza for lunch fo the kids.  Thanks also to Coach Sheres, Coach Kumar and student officers (Claire, Eva, Jackie, Jessie, Sanjana and Kavish) who helped get our kids ready for this tournament.  We also appreciate Parker's continuing support of the team

The Parker Speech and Debate continues its extraordinary growth with the largest number of teams ever to compete in a SDIVSL Parliamentary ("Parli") Debate tournament at the 10/22/22 event at Bonita Vista High School.  Parker had eleven Parli teams--three varsity teams and eight novice teams--participate.  Sanjana Kumar '24/Sophia Tyrrell-Knott '23, Neil Rao '24/Samuel Dago Fernandez '24 and Ruby Adler '25/Ella Lee-Guest '25 competed in the varsity division.  Two of our novice teams were returning for their second tournament:  Mark Blair '26/Asher Sheres '26 and Luca Said '26/Kobi Oldenburg '26.  Six of the novice teams were participating in their first tournament:  Michele Rosales '26/Riya Khushu '26, Josephine Choy '26/Ethan Liu '26, London Maslow '25/Charlie Newman '25, Mitchell Janes '26/Abhi Kamdar '26, Ronit Khushu '26/Zayden Antia '26 and Shounak Ray Chaudhuri '26/Rithvik Madiraju '26.  

All of the teams did super well in a field of 30 varsity teams and 50 novice teams!  Ruby and Ella went undefeated (4-0) in varsity Parli and were awarded trophies that our Parliamentary Debate Captain Sophia Tyrrell-Knott accepted on their behalf (as they were on their way to Homecoming),  Two of our novice teams--Mark and Asher and London and Charlie--went 3-1 in their four rounds, earning medals!  

 Special acknowledgements should be made as to Sophia as well as the other officers/varsity competitors (Sanjana, Kavish, Claire, Samuel, Neil, Ella and Ruby) who along with the three coaches judged numerous practice Parli rounds while doing their own practice rounds.  Thank you also to Coach Sheres who spent the entire day at Bonita Vista and split Parli room duties with Coach Epley.  And a huge thank you to the team's wonderful "team mom" Luisa Fernandez who, as usual, provided the kids with a plethora of delicious fruits and other snacks.  Thank you also to John Blair who kindly picked up pizza for the kids.  And a big thank you to the parents who served as judges to make it possible for our students to compete.  And as always, many thanks to Ms. Dilmore for her support of the team which allows our team to keep growing and competing