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On 3/19/16, in Springfield, IL, the Schaumburg High School Debate Team succeeded in continuing its legacy by defending its State Title to win the 2016 IHSA Debate State Championship. This victory marks the fourth time in five years that the team has won (in 2013, they took 2nd Place). The season for these students starts in August, although some start in the summer with Debate Camp, and lasts until the middle of March. Students practice for about two hours a day, honing their expertise in the fields of public welfare, foreign affairs, economics, philosophy, and current events. Each tournament, of which there are about two or three a month, is an invitational – but it all leads up to the culminating event of IHSA State, the summative assessment for every Illinois Debate Team. The IHSA Debate State Tournament started with over twenty schools with over 150 competitors in the preliminary rounds that broke to 66 students in elimination rounds. Schaumburg started with 10 qualifiers in Congressional Debate including freshmen – Raphael Portillo (semifinalist), Sanjana Ade, Binti Kohli, and Giselle Soares, sophomore – Sandy Saikumar, juniors – Luke Kim (semifinalist), Joseph Erpito, and seniors – Srini Cherukuri, Karolina Skarzynska, and Angela Lii. In the final round, only 16 debaters remained; three were from Schaumburg. In finals, the lowest score wins. There are five judges and each must rank every student 1-16, which makes a 5, a rank of one from each judge, a perfect score: Srini Cherukuri (senior) earned a near-perfect score of a 6 in finals, which raised him to 1st Place in argumentation, which clinched the State Championship for Schaumburg. He was supported by Karolina Skarzynska (senior), who won 1st Place for Speaking based on raw speech scores and Sandy Saikumar (sophomore) who seized 3rd Place. Due to her scores leading up to finals, Skarzynska won the title of Captain of the IHSA All-State Debate Team for Congressional Debate. As a senior going into this tournament, Cherukuri reflected that the some of the partnerships between the students had always existed, even if undefined, despite individual success. He wanted to forge team success from each individual – a feat that could only be accomplished with Skarzynska’s undying devotion to the team as its elected President: she took Srini’s idea and moved to explicitly define the partnerships that needed to exist for the team to win through constant communication with every member. Skarzynska was also recently voted to represent Northern Illinois out of every Speech and Debate student in the area for the National Speech and Debate Association as Student of the Year for her leadership and teamwork. In addition to all of their success in Congressional Debate, they also had elimination and speaking medalists for Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum Debate in sophomores – Jake Kaminski and Bhavi Vashi, juniors – Hannah Hyman, Kshitij Vashi, and Sarah Liu, and seniors – Craig Soares and Cole Miller. Sarah Liu had the honor of winning Captain of the All-State Debate Team for Lincoln-Douglas Debate. So, Schaumburg had two of the four possible Captain titles for IHSA Debate. Last year, Schaumburg set a record as the only high school in Illinois to win the IHSA Debate State Championship in the three divisions of Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, and Congressional Debate – and they are still the only school to hold this honor. |
