Hackley Wins Final Parli Debate Tournament of the Season!

On Saturday, May 23, Hackley hosted the first inaugural HSPDP Online Tournament, featuring schools from NY, NJ, CT, and CA.

Thirty teams competed in 3 rounds of debate, including such topics as “Joseph Biden should step aside as a Presidential candidate” and “The US should become a cashless society.”

Hackley had 3 teams competing, including Junior Parli co-captains Kiri Fitzpatrick and Lily Napach, Freshman Mason Napach and Sophomore Michael Potanin, 8th grader Jad B., and 7th grader Sejal V. Hackley placed 2nd overall in both total number of wins and percentage of wins. Kiri and Lily were 3-0 and came in 1st place as the top ranked team in the tournament. Both earned speaker awards in the top 10 out of more than 80 debaters. It was a great way to end our High School Parli season on a high note.

Senior Neil Singh deserves a special thanks for his work running the event. As his senior project, Neil committed himself to learning and running online debate tournaments all spring and he was instrumental in running both the MS and HS Public Debate Program debates the past two weekends, providing an opportunity for hundreds of debaters on both the east coast and the west coast to take part in tournaments during our period of social distancing. All told, Neil spent countless hours organizing and 3 entire Saturdays working tirelessly behind the scenes on Zoom to solve the logistical challenges moving dozens of debate teams, judges, and coaches in and out of breakout rooms and keeping track of the scores and rounds all day. Because of Neil, Hackley is at the forefront of organizing and running online events which is likely to continue throughout the fall. Congrats, Neil!
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