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Four SPA debaters win second place in international debate tournament
Submitted Photo: Heather Fairbanks.
Seniors Jordan Hughes, Afsar Sandozi, Thomas Toghramadjian, and Shaan Bijwadia, along with their coaches, Heather Fairbanks and Tom Fones hold up their second place trophy. ““We had an amazing time. It was funny to see as we exceeded everyone else’s expectations as well as our own,” Sandozi said.
May 8, 2015
After exceeding expectations and making it to the Elite 8 of the International Public Policy Forum debate tournament in New York City, the dynamic foursome of seniors Afsar Sandozi, Shaan Bijwadia, Tommy Toghramadjian, and Jordan Hughes finished with an impressive second place overall.
“We had an amazing time. It was funny to see as we exceeded everyone else’s expectations as well as our own,” senior Afsar Sandozi said.
The team were paired with Bellaire High School from Texas in the quarterfinals, which they won, and then paired against Union High School from Washington in the semi-finals, which they also won.
“After we won the semis I was on cloud nine, I could not wipe the smile off my face. We were all just experiencing pure excitement,” Sandozi said.
The team then moved on to the championship, in which they were against St. Mark’s School in Dallas. According to IPPF, “Every year the IPPF finals are judged by some of the world’s foremost experts in politics, debate, business, and law.” The judging for the championship round also included voting open to the public, as all of the Elite 8 matchups could be viewed through the IPPF website. In the final round, the team finished in second behind St. Mark’s School. “Sure we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t win, but we soon realized how far we actually came and we’d all do it again in heartbeat,” Sandozi said.
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