Harrison Debate Team Continues to Dominate

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In this school year alone, the Harrison Debate Team has already won nine titles, one district championship, one varsity state championship, and has qualified for the three most prestigious postseason debate championships in the country.

At the New York State Debate Coaches’ Association (NYSDCA) State Championship, sophomore Danny DeBois won this year’s state title—the first sophomore to capture this honor. He was also named the tournament’s second place speaker.

Freshman Amy Geller secured the state runner-up position in the novice division, losing a close match in the final round. The Harrison team also won the Small School “Sweepstakes” award given to the team with a small number of entries that performs the best.

In the New York State National Forensic League (NFL) District Championship, Harrison debaters Danny DeBois and Patty-Jane Geller were declared co-champions. The NFL District, which encompasses all non-New York City forensics programs, runs an annual district championship to determine who will debate at NFL Nationals. The NFL District only qualifies one student to nationals and uses a double-elimination format to determine who will attend.

This year, Danny and Patty-Jane were the only two debaters who had not been eliminated by the end of the tournament. Based on pre-tournament seeding, Danny will attend NFL Nationals and Patty-Jane will be the alternate.

Harrison also won the tournament’s Sweepstakes Award as the top placing debate team in the district.

For the first time in the team’s short three-year history, Harrison has qualified a debater to attend the National Catholic Forensic League’s (NCFL) Grand National Championship. NCFL Nationals, originally founded by Catholic schools with forensics programs but now open to all schools, will be held in Baltimore, MD, Memorial Day Weekend.

Harrison's district, which includes all New York City and Westchester schools, qualified six students to attend nationals. Danny placed second, winning 6 of 8 possible ballots. Patty-Jane missed qualifying by a single ballot, defeating some of the tournament’s toughest competition.

“We are happy to extend our season to the end of the year and look forward to representing Harrison at these tournaments,” said team advisor Chetan Hertzig.