“Qualified success” is the best way to describe CoramDeoAcademy’s Debate Team participation at the Flower Mound High School Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament held this past Friday and Saturday. This private Christian school high school, whose enrollment is only 149 students, placed 8 participants from second place to semi-finalist. The team is coached by Ms. Gerri Colvin who is in her 3rd year at CDA.
The Debate Team is only in their first year of interscholastic participation and will compete in TAPPS beginning next scholastic year. The accomplishment is more significant when one realizes that CDA competed against powerhouses such as Southlake Carroll, Denton Ryan, Marcus High, and Grapevine High.
17 – year old Greg Flores, a junior, led the team with his second place finish in Original Oratory entitled “The Blog Problem” in which he rails against the misuse and abuse of internet weblogs, or blogs.
Anna Accomazzo placed fourth in Domestic Extemporaneous Speech, Michael Sobolik and Andrew Ahles each placed third and fourth in Student Congress, respectively. They are all juniors, as well. Several other Coram Deo students achieved semi finalist status including Hannah Chupp and Ian Early in Original Oratory; Brittany Zeto and James Frank in Student Congress.
Each of the participants tries to accumulate points by advancing to the next round. The accumulation of points then qualifies the student to represent their school in state and national tournaments.
Flores hopes to parlay his love for debate and speech into a scholarship at WesternKentuckyUniversity where he plans to major in English Literature. His ultimate goal is to teach English at the college level when he is not pursuing his goals of being a professional actor. Through representation with the Kim Dawson Talent Agency, Mr. Flores has been featured in numerous commercial and industrial films. He recently completed work on an independent film with local director Colin Kennedy called “The Fire”. He also is a past Patrol Leader for Boy Scout Troop 709.