In only their first year the Milton High School Debate and Speech team has enjoyed tremendous success.

At yesterday’s State Debate Tournament,  the pair of Ailsa Jeffries and Maya Rosmarin won first place in the “novice” Public Forum Debate competition. “Novice” in the debate world is somewhat equivalent to Junior Varsity. Ms. Rosmarin is a sophomore and Ms. Jeffries is a freshman. Public Forum debate is a form of debate in which two teams each consisting of a pair of students engage in a debate on a current affairs topic (e.g. Affirmative Action). Students research the topic thoroughly and need to be prepared to argue both sides of the issue.

But wait there’s more!

The pair of Jeffries and Rosmarin also made it to the semi-final round of the varsity Public Forum debate.
As Coach Nick Fitzgerald notes, “There were 43 teams competing on Saturday, and because it was the state level competition, these were the 43 best teams in the state.  This essentially means that as underclassmen, Maya and Ailsa out-performed all but three varsity debate teams in the entire state!”

And they are not done!

It is the Debate and Speech Team.  Catherine Spino and Isabella Carter who are on the “speech” side of the ball as it were – will compete on April 10th in the State Speech Competition.  We wish them the best of luck!

And a hearty congratulations to the Ailsa, Maya, the team and the coaches, Nick Fitzgerald and Phil Tedesco!

PS – We recently sat down with Coach Fitzgerald and a few members of his team. You can watch the broadcast of that interview tonight on Milton Access Cable TV at 7:30pm.