State titles for Starr’s Mill Speech and Debate team

The Starr’s Mill Speech and Debate Team ended it’s season with multiple state titles. The awards were won at the Georgia Forensics Coach’s State Tournament hosted by the Westminster School in Atlanta. Starr’s Mill won the Cup of Excellence for qualifying the most competitors to the state tournament for its size division. The debate team, under the guidance of Coach Brandon Kendall, are Georgia’s 2012 Debate Team Champions. The combined debate and speech teams took the third place trophy in the overall Tournament Sweepstakes Award.

In addition to the three team awards, Starr’s Mill won several individual awards. Jacob Nails is Georgia’s 2012 Lincoln Douglas Champion. Georgia Brunner and Greg O’Brien are the Public Forum Debate Champion runners-up. Daniel Temple and Jake Martin are Public Forum quarter-finalists, and Annefloor deGroot and Ryan Williams are Public Forum octo-finalists. Valerie Harrison, coached by Mr. Sean Hickey, took fifth place in Extemporaneous Speaking.

Starr’s Mill also qualified five students to the 2012 National Forensics League National Tournament. Jacob Nails and Brent Huang qualified in Lincoln Douglas debate. Paige Neary and Diana Ricketts qualified in Duo Interpretation. Georgia Brunner qualified in International Extemporaneous Speaking. The team will travel to Indianapolis in June to compete in the national tournament.