Students cheer at the Citywide Championship award ceremony. | Photo Credit: Marina Que
Middle School Championship Wraps Up A Stellar Year of Mars Colonization Debates
As our middle school debaters competed this year, they’ve traveled a remarkable distance together – though perhaps not quite as far as Mars! As they debated the pros and cons of Mars colonization, their first tentative steps into argumentation have become confident strides. Join us as we celebrate the top debaters from each team, who competed for the title of Citywide Champion this spring.
Plus, check out the community awards that recognize the mentors who live out our mission and help make our urban debate experience out of this world.
Community Award Winners
Teacher Coach of the Year: Jonathan Kohan, Centennial Middle School
Jonathan Kohan earned the Teacher Coach of the Year award for his work at Centennial Middle School. | Photo Credit: Marina Que
Jonathan Kohan of Centennial Middle School was chosen as our Middle School Teacher Coach of the Year. Since he started coaching middle school debate three years ago, Centennial’s robust and enthusiastic team has grown quickly and seen significant competitive success across multiple divisions of competition. Mr. Kohan is the kind of coach who works tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure every student in Centennial has the opportunity to join and succeed in debate.
Student Coaches of the Year: Zade White and Kiernan Baxter Kauf
Zade and Kiernan have created an enthusiastic and empowered team environment at Hidden River Middle School. | Photo Credit: Marina Que
A unique feature of the MNUDL’s middle school debate program is that high school students serve as assistant coaches, building their leadership skills and passing expertise on debate strategy down to the next generation. Congratulations to Zade White and Kiernan Baxter Kauf, who earned the Student Coach(es) of the Year Award for their exceptional work at Hidden River Middle School! They connect authentically with students and have helped make the debate team a fixture of Hidden River’s learning community. From preparing lesson plans to providing encouragement and sage advice to their debaters, these two do it all!
Exceptional Community Member: Flory Sommers
Longtime MNUDL coach and debate advocate Flory Sommers was recognized with an Exceptional Community Member Award. | Photo Credit: Marina Que
Flory Sommers was presented with the Exceptional Community Member award, recognizing her longtime commitment to coaching students and advocating for the visibility of debate in the community. Flory has been involved with the MNUDL for nearly two decades now. Her influence spans coaching and mentoring coaches across middle school debate, Spanish Debate, and East African Debate – she finds a way to bring out the potential in students and peers wherever she goes!
Exceptional Community Members: Jones White Family
The Jones White family has built a fierce team of Yinghua Debate Dragons. | Photo Credit: Marina Que
Our second Exceptional Community Member Award was presented in recognition of the Jones-White family, who have spent years building a legacy of engaged debaters at Yinghua Academy. It is rare to find one exceptional coach and community member at a school, much less a family of them! The Jones-Whites have been at the helm of the Yinghua debate program for nearly a decade now, and have created one of the most consistently large and competitive teams in the middle school debate circuit. Their alums have become high school state champions, college debaters, high school coaches, and cornerstones of several other programs. Their hard work and dedication ripples through our network, making positive experiences for students and growing their skills.
Tournament Results
As always, students had the opportunity to earn two types of awards at this tournament: partnership awards and speaker awards. Partnership awards recognized individual two-debater teams with the best win/loss record across prelims and finals. Speaker awards are given to students whose judges give them the highest number of speaker points according to a rubric including elements like argumentation, public speaking, and use of evidence. Please congratulate these top award-winning students for their accomplishments!
Rookie Division
Congratulations to our Rookie Division Champions, Shy Watkins & Mecko Mix from Robbinsdale! This division is for students who are debating for the first time – what an amazing way to debut.
Rookie finalists Kristelle Asare & Roger Garshelis from Chaska Middle School were the runner-ups after fierce rounds of debate and finals.
Rookie Partnership Awards:
- Champions: Shy Watkins & Mecko Mix (Robbinsdale)
- Finalists: Kristelle Asare & Roger Garshelis (Chaska)
- 3rd: Kimaya Parham & Amaiyha Jones (Hidden River)
- 4th: Azaria COrk & Aaliya Cates (Brooklyn Center)
- 5th: Astrid Chacon & Jennifer Frias Lopez (Risen Christ Academy)
- 6th: Violet Breuch (Plymouth)
- 7th: Rengsona Yawa & Kira Chan (Washington Tech)
- 8th: Giovanna Van Ness & Jamilete Tirado Martinez (Hidden River)
- 9th: Xavier Hansen & Harrison Swan (Plymouth)
- 10th: Alaine Lavall & Imohang Rai (Robbinsdale)
Rookie: Speaker Awards (Top 20)
- Top Rookie Speaker: Violet Breuch (Plymouth)
- 2nd: Rengsona Yawa (Washington Tech)
- 3rd: Shy Watkins (Robbinsdale)
- 4th: Roger Garshelis (Chaska)
- 5th: Mecko Mix (Robbinsdale)
- 6th: Elizabeth Adekinle (Skyview MS)
- 7th: Lena March (Skyview MS)
- 8th: Kristelle Asare (Chaska)
- 9th: Kira Chan (Washington Tech)
- 10th: Harrison Swan (Plymouth)
- 11th: Jamilete Tirado Martinez (Risen Christ)
- 12th: Giovanna Van Ness (Risen Christ)
- 13th: Xavier Hansen (Plymouth)
- 14th: Alaine Lavall (Robbinsdale)
- 15th: Zamarriah Serenity (Brooklyn Center)
- 16th: Katine Yang (Washington Technology Magnet School)
- 17th: Gus Joy (Justice Page Middle School)
- 18th: Gage Kuha (Centennial Middle School)
- 19th: Imohang Rai (Robbinsdale)
- 20th: Thomas Goodell (Franklin Middle School)
Novice Division
Your Novice Division champions were Antoinette Kamara & Iqra Mohammed from St. Louis Park Middle School! Both also earned Top 5 speaker awards.
Congratulations to our novice finalists, Chloe Grant & Ally Trei, whose school (FAIR Crystal) joined our league for the first time this year!
Novice Partnership Awards (Top 10)
- Champions: Antoinette Kamara & Iqra Mohammed (St. Louis Park)
- Finalists: Chloe Grant & Ally Trei (FAIR Crystal)
- 3rd: Jamila Ahmed & Loretta Stocksmith (Justice Page)
- 4th: Carina Crutchfield & Aurora Rudberg (Capitol Hill)
- 5th: Petra Mueller (Murray MS)
- 6th: Citlalli Velasquez-Garcia (Sojourner Truth Academy)
- 7th: Stein & Nora Mclelland (Sanford Middle)
- 8th: Willa Bode & Angela Qi (Yinghua Academy)
- 9th: MaryAnn McCrary & Nathan Vang (John Glenn MS)
- 10th: Harry Jones-White & Samantha Mason (Yinghua Academy)
Novice Speaker Awards (Top 15)
- Top Speaker: Harry Jones White (Yinghua Academy)
- 2nd: Citlalli Velasquez-Garcia (Sojourner Truth)
- 3rd: Antoinette Kamara (St. Louis Park)
- 4th: Iqra Mohammed (St. Louis Park)
- 5th: Samantha Mason (Yinghua)
- 6th: Jasmine Perez (John Glenn)
- 7th: Nora Mclelland (Sanford)
- 8th: Cassidy Xiong (John Glenn)
- 9th: Loretta Stocksmith (Justice Page)
- 10th: Avi Wyler (Highland Park)
- 11th: Chloe Grant (FAIR Crystal)
- 12th: Ally Trei (FAIR Crystal)
- 13th: Gabriel Miller (Anthony Middle School)
- 14th: Angela Qi (Yinghua Academy)
- 15th: MaryAnn McCrary (John Glenn)
Junior Varsity Division
Najma Ahmed and Amira Sabriye from Justice Page Middle School took home the Champion trophy for the Junior Varsity Division! This was a huge division with over 80 speakers – making it to the top is an impressive feat!
Capitol Hill Magnet School’s Marji Hadi-Iyer and Ella Kopidakis were finalists in the Junior Varsity division! Last year, they also earned their place as Finalists in the Junior Varsity division – we admire your consistency!
JV Partnership Awards (Top 20)
- Champions: Najma Ahmed & Amira Sabriye (Justice Page)
- Runner Ups: Ella Kopidakis & Marji Hadi-Iyer (Capitol Hill)
- 3rd: Mattias Kunc & Elsa Rismoen (Yinghua Academy)
- 4th: Liam Burgess (Sanford)
- 5th: Elias Keeler & Ikeah Hakanson (Murray MS)
- 6th: Gabe Anderson & Margaux Wright (Yinghua Academy)
- 7th: Grant Bode (Yinghua Academy)
- 8th: Liam Sahli & Leila Hogan (Capitol Hill)
- 9th: Emma Rutherford & Lyra Klein (Hidden River MS)
- 10th: Helen Collins & Delcie Lyngaas (Sanford MS)
- 11th: Nora Czarniecki & Emmeline Brookes (Capitol Hill)
- 12th: Isabella Minus & Penelope Turner (Highland Park)
- 13th: Lilly Kriz & Raheem Nda (Hidden River)
- 14th: Mia Silva (Highland Park)
- 15th: Evelyn Scully Bindman & Joy Gable & Oliver (Capitol Hill)
- 16th: Maydi Loftus & Malcolm Owens (Sanford)
- 17th: Theo Jodzio & Henry Day (Sanford)
- 18th :Yasmine Hussein & Everly Gilgan Deml (Hidden River)
- 19th: John Temple-Hanson & Cassius Staffin Wiebe (Justice Page)
- 20th: Max Schatz & Jack Greene (Hidden River)
JV Speaker Awards (Top 30)
- Top JV Speaker: Najma Ahmed (Justice Page)
- 2nd: Amira Sabriye (Justice Page)
- 3rd: Leila Hogan (Capitol Hill)
- 4th: Grant Bode (Yinghua Academy)
- 5th: Helen Collins (Sanford)
- 6th: Emma Rutherford (Hidden River)
- 7th: Liam Sahli (Capitol Hill)
- 8th: Marji Hadi-Iyer (Capitol Hill)
- 9th: Lyra Klein (Hidden River)
- 10th: Delcie Lyngaas (Sanford)
- 11th: Najma Abdi (Skyview)
- 12th: Anisa Said (Skyview)
- 13th: Ella Kopidakis (Capitol Hill)
- 14th: Mattias Kunc (Yinghua)
- 15th: Penelope Turner (Highland Park)
- 16th: Lorena Janisch Aguirre (Highland Park)
- 17th: Lilly Kriz (Hidden River)
- 18th: Emmeline Brookes (Capitol Hill)
- 19th: Nora Czarniecki (Capitol Hill)
- 20th: Elsa Rismoen (Yinghua)
- 21st: Destiny Mathis (Hidden River)
- 22nd: Jude Huffman (Justice Page)
- 23rd: Julia Gottschalk (Anthony MS)
- 24th: Evangeline Schmidt (Skyview MS)
- 25th: Sawda Hassan (Skyview MS)
- 26th: Winnie Schmitz (Skyview MS)
- 27th: Tiya Ambo (Skyview MS)
- 28th: Liam Burgess (Sanford)
- 29th: Mya Fisher (John Glenn)
- 30th: Elias Keeler (Murray MS)
Varsity Division
Please send your congratulations to the Varsity Debate Champions, Lexi Wang and John Levi from Yinghua Academy! Last year, Lexi and John were runner-ups in the Novice division – we’re impressed by how far they’ve come over the course of just one season!
As in the Junior Varsity division, the runner-ups were from Capitol Hill Magnet School: congratulations to Arya Falk and Zadie Hadi-Iyer!
Varsity Partnership Awards (Top 2)
- 1st: Lexi Wang & John Levi (Yinghua Academy)
- 2nd: Magnet Arya Falk & Zadie Hadi-Iyer (Capitol Hill)
Varsity Speaker Awards (Top 4)
- 1st: Zadie Hadi-Iyer (Capitol Hill Magnet)
- 2nd: Lexi Wang (Yinghua)
- 3rd: John Levi (Yinghua)
- 4th: Arya Falk (Capitol Hill Magnet)
Thank you to everyone who made it a great season of debate! Our dedicated coaches, invested school leaders and communities, and generous volunteers helped make it happen. We want to send a special shout out to the parents and families who joined our debate community by giving their unconditional support to our debaters as learned to speak out across the season.
