Sacred Heart - Top Team, Senior
Sacred Heart - Top Team, Junior
Mattea Roach - Fifth Place, Senior
Rory Flynn - Top Speaker
Rory Flynn - Top Junior
Rory Flynn - Top Senior
I am extremely proud of our girls, Coach Casey, and the fact that at Sacred Heart we have the best debating program in Canada (throughout the world? - this is not an exaggeration!).
Hip Hip Hooray!
With Admiration, Sr. Wachter
The full text of the email Mr. Casey received:
"I have a team of 18 year old boys and they're all afraid of a 15 year old girl."
With reason. The fifteen year old girl --Rory Flynn, with her 14 year old partner Mattea Roach,-- polished off the teams from all other schools at the Queen's high school debating tournament this weekend (including the young gentlemen from UCC).
116 teams from across Canada travelled to Kingston for a weekend of debate. The topics were all impromptu meaning that the teams had no more than fifteen minutes to prepare their debate on a range of topics --
Criminalizing the payment of ransom
Giving docotors the right to refuse to perform procedures they have religious or ethical objections to
Not publicizing the details of mass murders
Stopping research on artificial intelligence
Three days and nine debates later, one team had won every round they entered.
Rory was the top individual debater at the tournament, defeating 231 others. Mattea was 5th. If being so young was a disadvantage in their debating against senior high students, it was not obvious.
While Rory and Mattea were pleased to win the tournament outright, in going there they had a more modest ambition: the top team whose members were under 15 on September 1st would qualify to represent Canada in Britain in May. They wanted to be one of those teams.
Ultimately, they qualified. They just won the senior category in the process. A team from Crofton House School in BC amd a team from UTS in Toronto will accompany them to England in May. A team from Upper Canada College in Toronto were the runners up in the senior high category.
Rory is the fourth Sacred Heart student to place 1st individually at Queen's in the last 10 years.
Rory has placed first this year at McGill, Dalhousie, St FX (a tie), and the Nova Scotia Provincials. She and Mattea won the junior high nationals and she any Anya Friesen won the junior high category at McGill and the Provincials. She is looking forward to tournaments in the rest of the year.
Brian Casey
BOYNECLARKE LLP
Debate Coach
"I have a team of 18 year old boys and they're all afraid of a 15 year old girl."
With reason. The fifteen year old girl --Rory Flynn, with her 14 year old partner Mattea Roach,-- polished off the teams from all other schools at the Queen's high school debating tournament this weekend (including the young gentlemen from UCC).
116 teams from across Canada travelled to Kingston for a weekend of debate. The topics were all impromptu meaning that the teams had no more than fifteen minutes to prepare their debate on a range of topics --
Criminalizing the payment of ransom
Giving docotors the right to refuse to perform procedures they have religious or ethical objections to
Not publicizing the details of mass murders
Stopping research on artificial intelligence
Three days and nine debates later, one team had won every round they entered.
Rory was the top individual debater at the tournament, defeating 231 others. Mattea was 5th. If being so young was a disadvantage in their debating against senior high students, it was not obvious.
While Rory and Mattea were pleased to win the tournament outright, in going there they had a more modest ambition: the top team whose members were under 15 on September 1st would qualify to represent Canada in Britain in May. They wanted to be one of those teams.
Ultimately, they qualified. They just won the senior category in the process. A team from Crofton House School in BC amd a team from UTS in Toronto will accompany them to England in May. A team from Upper Canada College in Toronto were the runners up in the senior high category.
Rory is the fourth Sacred Heart student to place 1st individually at Queen's in the last 10 years.
Rory has placed first this year at McGill, Dalhousie, St FX (a tie), and the Nova Scotia Provincials. She and Mattea won the junior high nationals and she any Anya Friesen won the junior high category at McGill and the Provincials. She is looking forward to tournaments in the rest of the year.
Brian Casey
BOYNECLARKE LLP
Debate Coach
