Falmouth High School’s debate team won high honors last week at the 2014 National Speech & Debate Tournament in Overland Park, Kansas.

Falmouth High brought home a trophy as one of 21 Debate Schools of Excellence in the nation, and senior Ben Dobbins won a trophy as fifth-place finisher in the Lincoln Douglas Debate competition.

Bangor High School’s debate team also performed well, with sophomore Nick Danby placing fifth in the Congressional Debate competition and the school making the list of 18 Debate Schools of Honor.

“It’s the best showing for Maine that anyone can remember,” said Michelle LaFond, who coaches the five-year-old Falmouth team with Karen Wolf.

Sponsored by the National Speech & Debate Association, the annual tournament is the culmination of speech and debate activities for nearly 130,000 high school students in the U.S.

The topic in the Lincoln Douglas debates was “The United States ought to prioritize the pursuit of national security objectives above the digital privacy of its citizens.”

Other Falmouth students who competed in the national tournament are: sophomore Ellie Sapat, juniors Sam Larson and Serene Singh and senior Nate Wolf.

Singh and Wolf competed in the Public Forum debates, where the topic was “NATO should strengthen its relationship with Ukraine in order to deter further Russian aggression.”


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.