SHS Speech and Debate Team Shines in the Florida Sun

Members of the Scarsdale High School Speech and Debate team traveled to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the 8th Annual Sunvitational Speech and Debate Tournament on the weekend of January 9th. Joining more than 1,000 entries, the Scarsdale squad consisted of four debaters and three speech students.

Four Scarsdale students received invitations to participate in an elite round robin event prior to the tournament on Friday, January 8th at Nova Southeastern University. Zack Gelles and Gillian Zipursky participated in Lincoln Douglas debate and Daniel Altabet and Justin Cooper participated in Original Oratory. Justin Cooper earned a 3rd place finish in his event. For the main tournament, Samara Jacobson and Michael Landau joined the Lincoln Douglas debate squad and Zach Kapner joined the speech students. Samara Jacobson made her way to the quarterfinals of the tournament and received a bid to the Tournament of Champions in Kentucky in April. Zack Gelles and Gillian Zipursky each made it to the octofinal round for Lincoln Douglas. They both previously had received bids to the Kentucky TOC. Daniel Altabet made it to the semifinal round in Humorous Interpretation, and Zach Kapner made it to the quarterfinal round in extemporaneous speaking and placed 6th in Informative Speaking. Justin Cooper placed 3rd in Extemporaneous Speaking and was the Champion in both Original Oratory and Informative Speaking.

The Sunvite tournament provides the winner of each category with a hand-painted skim board as a trophy. Altabet, Kapner and Cooper will be joining the debaters in Kentucky for the Tournament of Champions in April.