There is a lot happening at the MN Urban Debate League.  We thought a blog would help us keep our friends up to date! To get us started – here is some good news that has happened at the MNUDL over the last couple of weeks.

January 17th – 18th was 113th annual MN State High School League (MNSHSL) Debate Tournament.  It is the oldest running high school sanctioned event (older than hockey or basketball!) And the MN Urban Debate League had a terrific tournament.  To go to the state tournament you qualify out of your section.  MNUDL qualified eight teams from four sections – Washburn, Roosevelt, South, Como Park, Central and Highland Park all qualified teams.  After five preliminary rounds, the top eight teams break out to quarterfinals (and then semi-finals, and finals). Of the eight teams, the MNUDL had five – Como Park, Central, Highland Park, Washburn and South.  South and Highland Park advanced to semi-finals, and then Minneapolis South advanced to Finals – and defeated Wayzata High School to win the state tournament.

The last time a Minneapolis public high school won the state tournament was in 1945 – so this was pretty exciting! Lillie (a senior) and Trace (a junior) had a terrific tournament – and we are all very proud of them, and all our hard working debaters.

This past weekend, we also had our qualifier to the National Forensic League tournament, which will be held in Kansas City this June.  We had three teams qualify to go:

Highland Park – Dan Bannister and Ian Dill

Minneapolis South – Lillie Ouellette-Howitz and Trace Thompson

Como Park – Yassin Ahmed and Stryker Thompson

Great News for these three very talented teams.