Cal Prep’s Natassija Jordan & Brianna Martinez (Cal Prep JM) with their Varsity Champion Trophies!

Street Academy's Kayla Vee (Street V) in the Varsity Final!

On October 10, over 80 contestants composing 43 teams spanning the Bay Area gathered at the Fremont Federation of Schools to start the new season at BAUDL’s inaugural tournament.  The participant pool was rich in breadth, skill, and talent, producing incredible arguments and rounds at the largest tournament in BAUDL history.

If the novice division was of any indication, the exciting Skyline-Street Academy rivalry lives again this season.  The top two novice teams were Street Academy’s Berlyn Traylor and Tevin Wright (Street WT) and Skyline’s Channon May-Brooks and Marcus Bartley (Skyline MB) – separated by a mere 2.5 speaker points to complement their perfect records.  Other novice teams garnering 3-0 perfect records include the dynamic duo of Fremont’s Danyuana Jordan and Balboa’s Alan Lin – an exciting hybrid team representing both Oakland and San Francisco schools!  Skyline’s Jayla Hayes and Greg Belvin (Skyline HB) and Jonathon Gordillo and La Torree Howard (Skyline GH) also walked away with trophies representing their 3-0 records.

Showing off their rhetorical skills in the novice division were a diverse group of top speakers: La Torree Howard of Skyline, Berlyn Traylor of Street Academy and Yami Mchombo of Cal Prep rounded out the top 3 speaker awards.

The novices were treated to a peek into their futures, witnessing the explosive final varsity round between solo, maverick debater, Kayla Vee of Street Academy (Street V) and Cal Prep’s Natassija Jordan & Brianna Martinez (Cal Prep JM).  The round, which touched upon hot button issues like health care reform, President Obama’s recent Nobel Peace Prize, and the political capital of current politicians, was hard fought and intelligently argued.  After an intense round of argumentation taking place on stage, before a full audience, Cal Prep’s Jordan and Martinez came out as champions.  Along with talented teams, the varsity division consisted of an array of talented speakers.  Natassija Jordan (Cal Prep JM), Kayla Vee (Street V taking home two top speaker awards!), Cerlene Ervin (Cal Prep EW) and Tenesha Walker (Street TW) were among the top five speakers.

Click here to see the top teams in the varsity and novice divisions!
Click here to see the top speakers in the varsity and novice divisions!