NEWS Walnut Valley Unified School District
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 880 S. Lemon Avenue
March 16, 2012 Walnut, CA 91789
Contact:
Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources
(909) 595-1261 ext. 31204
Six students qualify for top tourney
WALNUT, CA—The Walnut High School Debate Team competed in the Southern California Debate League State Qualification Tournament held at Schurr High School in Montebello on March 10.
Walnut sent two public forum (researched) debate teams and four parliamentary (impromptu) debate teams to the contest.
Forty-five teams entered the debate competing for five spots at the state tournament.
Walnut placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, nabbing three of the five available spots battling schools such as San Marino, Gabrielino, and Arcadia.
The winning teams advancing to the state finals are seniors Rushabh Shah and Kevin Dhali, seniors Arpit Bhanderi and Michael Malki, and sophomores Ondrian Yeung and Andrew Chen.
The students are coached by English Teacher Jeff Silva.
“I am so proud of our teams! They had great success at the competition against some of the best teams in the area,” he said.
“Congratulations to Jeff and the students for their dedicated time and effort to be successful at the highest level,” said Principal Jeff Jordan.
The students will compete at the state tournament held April 27-29 at Lowell High School in San Francisco.
The state tournament involves three days of debate against the top schools in the state.
The state tournament will be hosted by the California High School Speech Association (CHSSA, an association comprised of member schools throughout the state of California.
CHSSA supports the integration of speech education into high school curriculae across California. CHSSA sponsors 11 leagues in the state that host a variety of local speech and debate competitions as well as qualify students to attend the State Tournament.
Shown:
Going to state championships!
Arpit Bhanderi, Michael Malki, Rushabh Shah, Andrew Chen, Ondrian Yeung (not shown: Kevin Dhali).