Ridge wins Speech & Debate School of Excellence

The Ridge Forensics Team, the interscholastic speech and debate team for Ridge High School, achieved a Debate School of Excellence award at the 2021 virtual National Speech and Debate Association National Championship.

The Debate School of Excellence honor is awarded to the top 20 schools in debate events at the tournament. Ridge competed in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, Congressional Debate, and Extemporaneous Debate. Ridge was also awarded a Speech School of Honor award for placing in the top 40 of speech events. At the 90th national championship, 1426 schools participated representing 47 states/US territories and seven additional countries.

Individual students who received recognition include senior Divya Krishnan, who was named the national champion in Prose Reading, taking first place out of 453 students, representing 47 states. In addition, sophomore Shruti Narayanabhatla advanced to the final round of Extemporaneous Debate, taking second place out of 750 students in the event, junior, Reya Brahmbhatt, took tenth place honors in Congressional Debate-Senate out of 200 students; and sophomore Kevin Li advanced to the top thirty in United States Extemporaneous Speaking.

Other students representing Ridge included seniors Audrika Chattaraj,Tanya Dadlani, Nurah Kutty, Benny Sun, and Kay Vollmar; juniors Maaz Farooqi, Nikaya Karda-Marok, and Minaal Kauser, sophomores Yejin Lee, Shree Manivel, Ashwin Sasane, and Chloe Yang; and freshmen Amy Cao, Anjali Dadlani, Mariam Khan, and Angelina Yang.

The Ridge Forensics / Speech and Debate Team is coached by David Yastremski along with Bernards Township teachers Natasha Doski, Stephanie Fletcher, and Daniel Norris. In addition, assisting the team are Sam Hoffman, Issac Keller, Marcus Perez, Alex Rivera, Anthony Survance, and Kevin Tang.

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The Ridge High School Forensics team competes throughout the academic year at local and national speech and debate competitions. They are members of the National Speech and Debate Association, the New Jersey Speech and Debate League, and the Newark Catholic Forensic League. Further details can be found at www.ridgeforensics.com.