This past weekend, Fayette County had a student attend the Warner Robins tournament.  Trusha Daya, the captain of the team, participated in Impromptu and Extemporaneous Speaking.  She has maxed out for NFL points in the Debate category, so she will be participating in speech activities when she can.  She placed in the top ten in Impromptu (which was the largest division at the tournament) and 4th place in Extemporaneous Speaking.  After the weekend, Trusha Daya eclipsed 1,300 NFL Points – making her have the most points in the state out of all debaters. Congratulations Trusha! Keep up the hard work.

The team travels to Washington DC on Friday morning and will return Sunday night.

This past weekend, the national debate season began for the Fayette County team. The team took 7 students up to the Wake Forest National Earlybird, where over 100 schools from over 20 states competed. At the prestigious invitational, the policy team Trusha Daya and Sonya Jooma defeated teams from Pine Crest (FL), Perry (OH), Johns Creek (GA), and Seaholm (MI). They reached the Round of 32 (“Double Octofinals”) where they debated the eventual champion of the weekend from Montgomery Bell Academy (TN). Despite not being victorious, the weekend was a major success for the girls and have earned some well-deserved national respect – ranking now in the top 25 in the Nation! They have been doing tons of research and we know they will keep up the hard work as they travel to Washington DC next.

We received an email on Tuesday notifying us of another entry we’ve qualified to NFL Nationals!  Iesha White has qualified in International Extemporaneous Speaking.  Iesha will not be able to attend because she has already been accepted into the prestiguous summer institute, Georgia’s Honors Program at Valdosta State University.

However, Iesha will still be honored with a National Qualification.

The next alternate in International Extemporaneous Speaking was freshman Allen Chancey.  Allen will be attending Nationals with the team this summer.  Allen is only the second freshmen all time from Fayette County to qualify to Nationals!

Congratulations Iesha & Allen!

We’ve just received word that both of the Fayette first alternates are going to Nationals.  The policy team of Trusha Daya & Sonika Reddy and the public forum team of Jordan Certeza & Ben Battles will be attending the 2009 National Championships in Birmingham, Alabama.  We’re excited for these juniors and seniors! They deserve it!

Fayette County has qualified two students to NFL Nationals this summer in Birmingham, AL. This marks the 12th straight year we will be going to Nationals [the second longest active streak in the Southern district]. Eric Bogert, the 2009 LD State Champion, was undefeated this past weekend and earned his second straight NFL qualifier award. Eric has now qualified to 5 Nationals [3 CFL, 2 NFL]- which is tied most for Fayette County history. Trusha Daya competed in Policy and Extemp this past weekend. While being rushed and forced to skip a round, she STILL was named the champion of the International Extemp division! She’ll be representing that district at Nationals this summer.

The policy teams of Trusha Daya and Sonika Reddy and Helen Ahga and Iesha White were named 1st and 2nd alternates in Policy Debate to represent the district at Nationals. The public forum team of Ben Battles and Jordan Certeza also were named 1st alternates to represent us at Nationals.

Congratulations everyone!

Senior Debater Eric Bogert debated over the winter break at the GFCA State Championship. Last year, Eric was defeated by Pace Academy in the Championship round. This year, Eric came back and accomplished a huge goal. He defeated Alpharetta High School in the Championship round. This year, Eric is 27-5 in Georgia tournaments (winning every tournament he has attended). He has truly exceeded our expectations. Give Eric a big congratulations when you see him! The Fayette County Debate Team is now the 2009 GFCA Varsity Policy and Lincoln Douglas State Champions!!!!