The Hawaii State Debate Tournament takes place every April and invites Hawaii’s best debaters to come to Honolulu to compete for the state title. Each year, debaters in the Hawai’i Speech League have three opportunities to qualify for the state tournament held at Punahou, a private school on Oahu.
This year, the first qualifying tournament–otherwise known as NITs (Neighbor Island Tournament), was hosted by Parker School from January 13th-14th. At that tournament, a total of 6 Parker School debaters broke to elimination rounds and 5 of them qualified for the state tournament.
Four weeks later, Parker debaters traveled to Iolani School in Honolulu to compete in the second state-qualifying tournament: IDTs. After two days of competition from February 17th-18th, 3 Novice Lincoln Douglas debaters broke to elimination rounds and all three qualified to the state tournament in April. Hugo Amos (Grade 12), Laynie Henderson (Grade 9), and Ava Harris (Grade 9) took 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place respectively, securing their places in the upcoming state tournament.
This week, the rest of Parker debaters will have one more opportunity to qualify for States’ through the district tournament. Good luck to Parker debaters and congratulations to those who have already qualified!