On January 13-14 the Jesters will host schools from all over Georgia and neighboring states at our third annual speech and debate tournament. Our Booster Club has worked tirelessly to help assure that students competing either at Grady HS or Inman MS have a great time!
Jesters are required to recruit enough community judges to fill 10 judge time slots for the tournament. The judge recruitment form can be found by clicking here: Judge Recruitment Form 2011. For additional information, please contact coaches Mario Herrera and/or Lisa Willoughby.
Happy New Year! The Jesters will be quite busy over the next few months. Here is the schedule for the Spring semester:
January 6-8, Montgomery Bell Academy, Nashville, TN. This tournament is by specific invitation from the tournament, and is hosted by the president of the National Forensic League, Billy Tate. Congrats to Holden Choi, Ben Dean and Isabelle Taft for being invited this year!
January 13-14, Quest for the Dream at Henry W. Grady High School. This is our tournament, hosting schools from Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. We will host the tournament both at Grady HS and Inman MS. Students are required to recruit judges. More on this in a different post to follow
January 21, Milton HS. This is the last invitational state qualification tournament open to all student. The tournament is in Alpharetta, GA.
January 27-29, The Barkley Forum for High Schools at Emory University. A national tournament that hosts schools from over 35 states. It is a fantastic time, right next door!
February 3-4, First/Second Year GFCA State Tournament at Gainesville State University. All first and second year competitors attend this championship tournament. 3rd and 4th year competitors may attend to judge.
February 10-11, Marist School. Students wanting to qualify for the Grand Nationals over Memorial Day Weekend in Baltimore, MD, must attend and place in the top tier at this tournament.
February 18-20, Harvard University. This is one of the largest invitationals in the nation. Varsity members who expressed interest in November have been registered and may attend. Detail forthcoming.
February 24-25, NFL National Qualifiers. Central Gwinnett High School has graciously offered to host this tournament. Entries are limited, and those who attend must agree to attend the NFL National Tournament in Indianapolis, IN in mid-June
March 2-3, University of Georgia. This is a great tournament for our policy debate squad.
March 9-10, Westminster Schools (tentative). This is the Varsity State Championship tournament for all those who have qualified for the tournament throughout the year.
March 23-25, Woodward Academy. Woodward host an invitational that boasts itself as the Novice/JV National tournament for LD and Policy Debate.
March 31, Location TBA. This date hosts the Student Congress qualifier for the NFL.
As we head to Winter Break, The Jesters still have a packed schedule! Over the next week, all Jesters will receive their judge recruitment forms for our tournament in January. This is the first time we have had our tournament in January, and we are very pleased to host schools from all over the South on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend.
Yolanda King
Yolanda King, eldest daughter of Dr. and Mrs. King, was a graduate of Grady High School. She passed away in 2007. In the spirit of her desire to bring people together from all walks of life and to have a positive impact in the world around her, we are pleased to offer “The Yolanda King Memorial Community Service Award”. The winner of the award will receive a trophy created by Grady HS’s own John Brandhorst. The winning competitor will also have a donation made to a community service organization of their choice, in their name. For more information on the tournament, visit http://www.joyoftournaments.com/ga/grady/info.asp.
The Booster Club Parent Potluck, a “dry run” for our January tournament, will take place on Friday, December 16th at 6:00pm in the lobby area of the Main Theatre. For more information, please contact Cathie Magnum Power, Alka Citrin or Alison Akard.
Also this Friday, the Jesters will meet after school at 4:00pm in the Main Theatre for our annual “Holiday Gathering o’ People” for some snacks and gift exchange. Freshmen should brings sweets/desserts, sophomores should bring drinks, juniors should bring non-sweet snacks and seniors should bring paper products. The gift exchange is a great way to reward those speakers who have gained the most NFL points… the person with the most points chooses last, and they can either take the last unopened gift OR they can “liberate” another gift already opened and give that person the unopened gift. This process starts with the student with the second-highest number of points. It will be GREAT FUN!
Finally, four of our Jesters, Holden Choi, Isabelle Taft, Rex Peteresen and Mallory Akard, along with coaches Mario Herrera and Lisa Willoughby, will attend the latest filming of the ”CNN Dialogues” special in partnership with Emory University, The James Weldon Johnson Institute for the study of Race and Difference and National Center for Civil and Human Rights. The event is being held from 7:00pm- 8:30pm in the Main Theatre. The theme for the discussion is Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender: Has More Openness Led to More Acceptance? The panel includes Jane Velez-Mitchell, Donna Rose, LZ Granderson, Johnny Weir and Robin Brand. Tickets are available for this event. For information, please visit this website: http://www.jamesweldonjohnson.emory.edu/sub-cnn.htm.
Congrats to The Jesters and their stellar performance at the Lee County High School “Trojan Wars” Speech and Debate Tournament. And the winners are…
Policy Debate- 5th Place speaker, Zoe Hamilton
Public Forum Debate- 4th Place Speaker, Becca Martin; 1st Place Speaker, Lauren Ogg; Champions, Becca Martin & Lauren Ogg
LD Debate- Semifinalists, Tiger Li and Jamie Reid; 2nd Place, Tatiana Johnson; Champion, Zoe Schneider
Prose/Poetry- 4th Place, Queen White; 3rd Place, Preston Choi; 2nd Place, Jahra Gholston; Champion, Marius Jackson
Humorous Interp- 3rd Place, Rex Petersen
Extemporaneous Speaking- 5th Place, Omar Skandari; 4th Place, Emily Dean; 3rd Place, Anna Braxton; 2nd Place, Rachel Libman
Duo Interp- 3rd Place, Carter Guensler and Preston Choi; 2nd Place, Ryan Switzer and Deya Bowers; Champions, Marius Jackson and Jahra Gholston
Dramatic Interp- Champion, Rex Petersen
Team Sweepstakes- Champions, Individual Events; Champions, Debate
Members of the team will be traveling to the Lee County High School “Trojan Wars” Speech and Debate Tournament in Leesburg, GA this weekend. We need ALL students competing to be in the Eighth Street parking lot at 4:45 so we can leave as close to 5am. It is a three hour trip and the tournament starts at 8:30am. Because of the length of the drive, we will stay overnight in Perry, GA. All information is on the permission form. To access the form from this website, please CLICK HERE! If you would like information about the tournament itself, just follow this link: Lee County Tournament info.
If you would like the location of the tournament, here is a map just for you…
