Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League

On April 16th and 17th, four students from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League traveled to Manhattan to compete against the best urban debate teams in the county at the 2011 Chase Urban Debate National Championship.  

Abraham Lincoln High School FN (Joseph Flores and Brandon Nhan) debated their way to a 4-1 preliminary record earning the 5th seed overall after the first day of competition and Crenshaw High School AR (Irvin Alvarado and Satchee Redd) finished preliminary debates with a 3-2 record overall earning the 16th overall seed. In addition to their outstanding win record Joseph Flores was recognized as the 15th ranked speaker, and Brandon Nhan was recognized as the 5th ranked overall speaker at the tournament.

While both teams were eliminated in the Octofinal round, their performance places each of these teams among the best urban debate teams in the country and places the LAMDL in a select class of urban debate leagues to advance more than one team to elimination rounds at the national tournament for two years in a row.

On April 8th and 9th the Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League hosted the third annual LA City Championship Debate Tournament on the campus of Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet. Over one hundred and forty students from ten LAUSD schools competed in Novice, Junior Varsity and Varsity level competition. While every team in attendance is deserving of praise, Elizabeth Learning Center (Novice Champs), Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet (JV Champs) and Abraham Lincoln High School (Varsity Champs) are deserving of special honors as they rose to the top of their respective divisions and ended the tournament as champions of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League. Here are the results from the elimination rounds:

Novice Division

Semi Finals

Lincoln BT def. Bravo DZ on a 3-0 decision

Elizabeth BP def. South East JS on a 3-0 decision

 Finals

Elizabeth BP def Lincoln BT on a 2-1 decision

Junior Varsity Division

Semi Finals

Bravo LP def. Downtown Magnets MW 3-0 decision

Manual Arts SG def. Elizabeth ES on a 2-1 decision

Finals

Bravo LP def. Manual Arts SG on a 3-0 decision

Open Division

Semi Finals

Crenshaw AR def. Stern Mass CS on a 2-1 decision

Lincoln FN def. Foshay CG on a 3-0 decision

Finals

Lincoln High FN def. Crenshaw AR on a 2-1 decision