Saline High School Debate Team Off To A Strong Start

The first debate tournament of the 2017 season​, brought the Saline High School and Middle School Teams to West Bloomfield High School on Saturday, Sept. 30.

​Nishan Bhattacharyya and Max Schneider ​walked away with first place in the Novice division and Aditya Arora​ won first place speaker in the Workshop division.

The Varsity team of Megan Bankowski and Jordan Haerick placed in the top four.​

Many others also won speaking awards.

Earning speaker trophies for Varsity were: Megan Bankowski, Jordan Haerick, Molly LaForest, Janna Jacobson, and Yolian Lao.

Additional speaker trophies for those in Workshop debates were:Ava Hajratwala, Kellan Meloche, ​​Noah Holloway, Bridget Skelly, and Paige Haddas.​

Three divisions were held for ​the first tournament: Varsity, Novice (first year debaters), and Workshop (for parents and students who wanted to learn about Public Forum debate and who practiced judging and debating three rounds, respectively).

Also debating at the first tournament were ​JoeyYonemori, John Muldoon​, Arabella Wooton, Abigail Berwick, Vivi Zegren, Allie Doran, ​Anna Healy, ​Maggie Robbins, ​Kaelyn Erwin, ​Giselle Jost, ​Trinity Callega, ​Sarah Yousif, ​Mallory Lizotte, ​Raven Burgess, ​Michael Niculcea, and Feiyang Wang.

​​The Saline High School debate team is coached by teacher Ms. Shelly Venema, the 2017 Michigan Speech Coaches Association Debate Coach of the Year. The Saline Middle School Debate team is coached by alumni debater Mackenzie Hagood and assisted by alumni debater Alex Benson and teacher Mrs. Staci Nazareth. ​

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