HHS Seniors Receive National Speech & Debate Association Academic All-American Award
Three senior debaters received the National Speech & Debate Association’s Academic All-American award, recognizing “academic rigor, competitive speech and debate success, and personal excellence.” Congratulations to seniors Jack Borman, Reese Potash, and Brooke Schiano-Gonzalez for earning this distinguished award, which places them among the top 2% of debaters in the nation.
So far this season, the team has accumulated three tournament wins and 9 qualifying bids to the Tournament of Champions (TOC). Jack Borman won the National Speech and Debate Season Opener, placing 1st out of 250 entries nationwide; Flynn Williams won the Lexington JV Round Robin; and Atharv Gandhi won the NYCFL Fall tournament. Additionally, Reese Potash reached the semifinals (the top 4) of the Valley National Championship in Iowa and the Bronx National Championship in New York. Brooke, Reese, Jack Borman, Jack Gessner, and Flynn have all earned bids to compete at the TOC. Team members have won multiple speaker awards, including top speaker honors for Brooke at Valley and Reese at Greenhill’s national championship in Dallas.
Jack Gessner is currently ranked #3 nationally in the Lincoln-Douglas debate by the National Speech & Debate Association; Jack Borman is ranked #4; Reese is ranked #8; and Andrew Gaffin is ranked #15. In New York, all of the top 10 Lincoln-Douglas debaters are from Harrison: Jack Gessner – #1, Jack Borman – #2, Reese – #3, Andrew – #4, Brooke – #5, Adeena Naeem – #6, Samantha Ramirez – #7, Jouseline Alvarez – #8, Flynn Williams – #9, Beverly Kang – #10.