Georgia High School Speech & Debate Website
This past weekend, Lee County senior Kyle Constable placed 6th overall in Extemporaneous Speaking at the Tournament of Champions for Extemporaneous Speaking.
This is Kyle’s third straight elimination appearance at a National Championship (last year’s NCFL and NFL) and his highest ranking to date.
Kyle will be competing at NCFL and NFL Nationals. Congratulations Kyle and his coach Bill Swafford.
Coaches –
All amendments received enough votes to pass. I have attached the voting summary to show the vote count totals and schools that voted. Please let me know you see a discrepancy.
You will also find a newly revised GFCA Constitution and By Laws.
Coaches,
Thank you for attending Saturday’s GFCA Meeting. We had seventeen schools in attendance. You will find the seven proposals the membership will vote on starting next Monday on April 30th.
In the next week, we ask that the membership review the final proposals and offer any comments or suggestions. We have included everyone’s email address so you can contact anyone who was at the meeting. To compare the proposals with the current Constitution & By Laws- you can find the current documents here.
We’ve also included the tournament calendar for next year, including the Fall meeting date. We are looking at the calendar for a Spring Meeting Date and will have that added soon as well. If you are interested in hosting the GFCA Fall Meeting please email me and we can discuss the details. The State Championship host applications will also be up very soon, and more details will be going out about that in the next couple of weeks.
Download GFCA April 21 Minutes
Thank you,
Jeffrey Miller
Secretary
Georgia Forensic Coaches Association
Following the nomination process, the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association is proud to announce the leadership for the 2012-2013 school year.
President – Jeffrey Miller, Marist School
Vice President – Richard Bracknell, Carrollton High School
Secretary – Maggie Berthiaume, Woodward Academy
Treasurer – John McClellan, Warner Robins High School
Area Coordinators will be elected after the Spring Meeting, after the future of the Area Tournaments are discussed.
Woodward Academy’s Jason Sigalos and Rahim Shakoor defeated Greenhill last night in the National Debate Coaches Association National Championship debate. Woodward Academy was the only undefeated school after preliminary rounds earning them the top seed in elimination debates. Woodward did not drop a single ballot the whole weekend. They are coached by Maggie Berthiaume and Bill Batterman.
This is Woodward’s first ever National Championship. This is the fourth National Championship a Georgia school has won this year.
This is Grady’s first ever National Championship, and Atlanta’s first win at the NAUDL Championships! Holden and Ben are coached by Lisa Willoughby. Congratulations Grady!
Dear Speech and Debate Colleagues,
The Spring Meeting of the Georgia Forensics Coaches Association will be held Saturday, April 21st at Marist School in Atlanta from 9:30am to 3:30pm. The meeting is open to all Georgia coaches, be they new to the activity or are seasoned coaches.
We will post the agenda for the meeting on this website by Wednesday. If you would like to add any items to the discussion by contacting Jeff Miller, GFCA Secretary, at jmill126@gmail.com or Mario Herrera, GFCA President at rioherrera@gmail.com
Meeting location:
Marist School
3790 Ashford Dunwoody Rd
Atlanta, GA 30318
GFCA Meeting Contact Person:
Mario Herrera
404.242.2297 (cell phone)
Parking:
Please use the parking lot at the end of the driveway of Marist School.
Where to go when at Marist:
We will be meeting in a classroom in the Chanel Building (the main central building on stilts) – we will be meeting in Room C220.
Who can attend?
The meeting is directed toward teachers/coaches who have competitive speech and debate teams in Georgia, regardless of level of experience.
What should I bring?
Writing utensil/paper/computer to take notes, questions, ideas, lunch money, and water bottles.
Dress attire-
Informal! Feel free to wear jeans or shorts, flip-flops, etc. Be comfortable!
This past weekend, colleges all around the nation competed in the National Debate Tournament hosted by Emory University. This was the first time the NDT was hosted in Georgia since 1995. This provided opportunities for current high school policy debaters to go and watch rounds of the best college teams. The GFCA would like to congratulate the following Georgia High School graduates on their successes at the NDT:
Austin Layton, Georgia (Milton ’09): Octofinalist
Dan Bagwell, Samford (Early County ’07)
Daniel Taylor, Harvard (Westminster Schools ’11)
Ellis Allen, Michigan (Westminster Schools ’11): Double-Octofinalist
Fayzan Rab, Emory (Greater Atlanta Christian ’08)
John Holland, Emory (Henry W. Grady ’08)
Josh Lee, Dartmouth (Chattahoochee ’09)
Kaavya Ramesh, Michigan State (Chattahoochee ’10): Octofinalist
Ken Bailey, Wake Forest (Milton ’09): Double-Octofinalist
Matthew Pesce, Emory (Woodward Academy ’10): Double-Octofinalist
Megan Cambre, Emory (Chattahoochee ’10): Double-Octofinalist
Mike Lacy, Georgia (Chattahoochee ’08): Octofinalist
Peyton Lee, Northwestern (Pace Academy ’09): Quarterfinalist
Richard Min, Wake Forest (Stratford Academy ’10): Double-Octofinalist
Shyam Shanker, Georgia (Wheeler ’10)
Tommy Beyer, Georgia (Chattahoochee ’08)
William Karlson, Harvard (Stratford Academy ’07): Double-Octofinalist
The GFCA honored two coaches for their hard work and dedication this past weekend at the Varsity State Championships. Voted among their peers, two coaches were awarded with the Coach of the Year Honors.
Bill Swafford from Lee County High School is your Speech Coach of the Year. Bill has been coaching for more than three decades. Bill is having arguably one of his best seasons coaching ever. Bill has coached some stellar students in Duo Interpretation and Extemporaneous Speaking. His speech students have reached elimination rounds in the past twelve months at NFL Nationals, CFL Nationals, Emory University, University of Florida, Wake Forest University, and many local tournaments. Bill works tirelessly for his program and has turned Lee County back into a Speech Hegemon of the Southern Peach District. Congratulations Bill!
Jeffrey Miller from Marist School is your Debate Coach of the Year. Jeffrey is in his first year with Marist, but sixth year of coaching in Georgia. Jeffrey has taken the Marist team to new heights this year securing their first ever Tournament of Champions bid and qualifiers to NFL Nationals. His policy teams have reached elimination rounds at University of Nevada Las Vegas, University of Kentucky, Samford University, Wake Forest University, and California-Berkeley. His public forum team went on to win the 2012 State Championship – a first for the program. Congratulations Jeffrey!
