The Fayette County High School debate team has wrapped up their first semester of competitions which included ten competitions all around Georgia. During the semester, FCHS has qualified seventeen (17) students to the State Championship which is third most in the State. Fayette County has qualified the most Public Forum debaters in the State to the State Championship with eleven.
The Fayette County Public Forum team recently hosted a Community event where they presented a debate on the building of an Islamic Cultural Center near Ground Zero. With a crowd of about twenty-five, four high school students debated issues and concerns regarding the Islamic Cultural Center.
These weren’t just any four high school students though, these four were special. At the last tournament of the semester, these four students qualified to the National Championship over Memorial Day Weekend in Washington DC.
Fayette County High School qualified seven students in all to the National Championship. Ryan Veccie (sophomore) and Yosef Shelbayah (junior) qualified in Public Forum Debate. John Cooper (freshman) and Kris Wilson (sophomore) also qualified in Public Forum Debate. Maha Khan (junior) qualified in Original Oratory. Marquay White (freshman) and Kaleb Samples (junior) qualified in Legislative Debate.
Additionally this semester, head coach Jeffrey Miller was also named the recipient of the Peach Fuzz Award – which awards the top new coach in the State. Jeffrey is in his 5th year of coaching the team, and his first as head coach of the FCHS Debate team. Jeffrey is the second teacher at Fayette County High School to be named with this prestigious honor.
The Fayette County Debate team will be hosting their annual debate tournament at Fayette County High School on January 7-8, 2011. The tournament is the largest high school hosted debate tournament in the state. The tournament is a National Qualifier and draws schools from all over the state as well as the Southeast. If you are interested in learning more information about how you could help at this tournament, please contact Jeffrey Miller at miller.jeffrey@fcboe.org.
