Indiana High Schools Wins Bruno Jacob Award

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From http://www.chestertontribune.com/Education%20Duneland%20Schools/62291%20chs_speech_and_debate_team_wins.htm

The Chesterton High School Speech and Debate Team won the prestigious Bruno E. Jacob National Award of Excellence at the National Forensic League’s national tournament in Birmingham, Alabama. In doing so, Chesterton became the first public school to ever win the award for the third time.
Marquette University High School is the only school to have won the award four times, and Bellarmine Preparatory School in California is the only other school to have won it for a third time.
The Bruno E. Jacob Award recognizes team excellence based on cumulative rounds of performance at the national tournament.
Once a team has won the award they go back to zero and start all over again. The last time the team received the award was in 1994.
In addition to the team honor, junior Tyler Fabbri was a finalist in U.S. extemporaneous speaking, placing fifth in the nation.
Based on a new rule for NFL qualification, Fabbri, as an underclassman, is guaranteed a spot in next year’s national tournament.
The NFL Executive Director, J. Scott Wunn, explained the new qualification rule as a reward for underclassmen who start the year along with 36,000 students competing in their event, advance to the national tournament along with 235 other qualifiers, and then finally place in the top six in the nation.
Fabbri competed in twelve rounds of competition at the national tournament before advancing to finals. This is the second time in three weeks Fabbri has received national recognition in forensics; he placed eighth in the nation in original oratory at the NCFL national tournament in Albany, New York.
The Bruno E. Jacob award recognizes team efforts based on the number of rounds accumulated over a period of years. Coach Chris Lowery pointed out, “If just one of our entries had not advanced we wouldn’t have won this award this year. This is what team is all about.”
Advancing beyond the six preliminary rounds for all qualifiers, were the public forum teams of Dakota McCoy (10) and Alec Donelson (12) - 9 rounds - and Luke Morgan (11) and Spencer Hadley (10).
In addition, Elisabeth Kindmark (10) in Oratory, Adam Potrzebowski in international extemporaneous, and the senior duo team of Jack Deuberry and Jackson Fox advanced to octafinals (8 rounds), placing them in the top 60 in their respective events.
Students not advancing but whose rounds helped to contribute to the Bruno E. Jacob recognition included Hayley Miller (11) in oratory, Matt Keeley (11) in drama, and Aris Ringas in student congress.
Also contributing were Lincoln/Douglas debaters Aralan Brooks (12) and Megan Adamczewski (11), as well as the policy debate teams of Siva Muthusamy (12) and Manhur Grewal (12), and Ben Andrews (12) and Jeff Tucker (11).
Coach Jim Cavallo, who also received the Bruno E. Jacob coach award, commented, “This really took all of us by surprise. We didn’t think we would be able to overcome the lead of the schools ahead of us, but the team really came through.”
This is especially rewarding for Cavallo, as he retires from teaching and coaching after more than 35 years.
Coaches Cavallo, Bob Kelly, Chris Lowery, Scott Woodhouse, Doug Pishkur and Kayla Fleming were joined by former student Molly Deuberry.
All helped with judging duties.
The team and its coaches will be honored at a banquet Tuesday evening, hosted by Michael and Susan Harris.