The Meadows Speech and Debate team has started the 2021 season with strong efforts, fun events, and outstanding success! While most of our tournaments remain online, we have had a couple of opportunities to return to in-person events, which were highly anticipated by all. A season is a story of a team, but rather than list all of the accomplishments, we would like to tell this story through the lens of four students.
Ira Sirulnick
Ira is a ninth grader who competes in policy debate. He has had an outstanding start to the year, attending the most tournaments of anyone on the novice team, and has performed consistently with diverse partnerships. He started out with a ninth place speaker award at the Damien High School tournament in California. Then he and his partner made it all the way to the finals of the Silver Division at the Meadows Invitational, debating against teams from Georgia, Virginia, Texas, and Illinois. The next weekend, he had his best tournament yet. He was the top speaker in novice policy at the David Damus tournament at Notre Dame High School, where he and his partner also came in first place as a team. For his speaker award, Ira won an Apple iPad! Most recently, he won the seventh speaker award and took third place at the Meadows Novice Policy Scrimmage. Every tournament he attends, he excels. Ira’s coach, Mr. Gordon, says that Ira has an outstanding potential future, as he consistently comes in after school to work on his speaking skills and on developing arguments. Mr. Gordon says that Ira’s best attribute is that he never makes the same mistake twice, which is the key to improvement. Ira’s positive attitude and friendly nature have allowed him to adapt to every situation and succeed. In policy debate this year, the topic is protecting the quality of water in the US, and Ira has argued in favor of a plan that urges the federal government to take action against lead in water pipes.
Ezzah Tariq
Ezzah is new to the Meadows and has gotten off to an amazing start on the debate team her freshman year. At her previous school, Ezzah competed in middle school speech and debate, focusing on Student Congress. As a result, Ezzah has started the year in the Junior Varsity division in Lincoln Douglas (LD) debate. She has done extremely well. At two of her first three tournaments, Ezzah has made it to the finals, and won one of them, even though she is a year younger than most JV debaters, and it is her first year in LD. At the Golden Desert Speech and Debate Association tournament in October, Ezzah went undefeated in her preliminary debates, advanced through the semifinal debate to defeat Clark High School in the finals, winning first place. In October, she was debating about whether to waive the patents for COVID vaccines for developing nations. At the West Tech tournament in December, she again made it to the finals of JV, before bowing out to a debater from ATech. The December topic for LD was whether workers should have a right to strike. One of Ezzah’s strengths is her support for her team—Ezzah is always the first one to congratulate her teammates and help them in their rounds. At the Meadows Invitational, she had a 3-1 record, as she had debated very well against strong competition. But her finest moment was when she showed support for her teammate who was debating in novice by going over all of the potential arguments with that fellow debater. She has an inner strength and humility that make her an excellent teammate and competitor.
Amy Choi
Amy is a junior who has been in speech and debate ever since she took the class in middle school. She has competed in many different events, from Lincoln Douglas, to policy in Utah, and individual events, previously winning the academic award for speech and debate. The Meadows is best known for the “debate” side of speech and debate. That is where we have had the most success in recent years. But as recently as ten years ago, we regularly fielded speech competitors who placed at tournaments and qualified for nationals. Amy is helping bring that back. This year, Amy has had success in original oratory—a ten-minute speech that she has written herself on a topic to persuade her audience. Amy’s speech is about the “Hurdle Mentality,” a tendency we have to approach obstacles as hurdles to overcome, but then race away from. She examines social movements, and how initial progress can be lost when people move onto the next “hurdle.” At the first league tournament, Amy placed third out of the entire district, the highest a Meadows student has placed in oratory in 15 years. In November, she made it to the quarterfinals at the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions qualifier, making her the first Meadows speech student to get a bid to the NIETOC, which is a national championship held in May. Amy is a model competitor and student, adapting to constructive criticism and new situations easily.
Madelyn Wold
Maddy is a senior who has competed at the highest levels of policy debate on the national circuit for four years. As one of the top returning debaters on the team, her leadership is her strongest attribute. Just as debaters before have helped her grow and succeed, she has accepted the responsibility to help the younger students on our team. With her partner, she attended the Damien High School tournament in LaVerne in October, and did very well, advancing to the semifinals and winning the ninth speaker award. However, she also won an important community award—the Nadeem Farooqi Memorial Debater Of Excellence Award. This award is given each year to a student competing at the Damien tournament who shows a record of academic and competitive success who also shows excellent character, particularly caring for the mental health of their peers. Nadeem was a Damien debater, who won the Meadows tournament while in high school, and who was always the kindest and most supportive person in debate. Maddy is an excellent recipient for the award, as she represents those values perfectly. Mr. Gordon, in nominating her, writes, “Maddy is even-tempered, compassionate, kind, and always expresses empathy for others ... and always shows patience and support for other members of the team.” He continues, “Maddy makes a concerted effort to get to know everyone on the team, even the first-years, and does not hesitate to encourage them. She is clearly invested in seeing the Meadows debate program succeed long after she has graduated.” There will be many more wins for Maddy in debate, but as a captain and leader on our team, her greatest strength is her positive leadership.
Our team is successful, but more importantly, the people who make up our team are outstanding students, competitors, and people. We only told four stories here, but everyone on the team contributes to our excellence, our team, and our season. Everywhere you look, each person has a great story to tell. We are proud of all of them and grateful for their time, talent, and treasure.
