We are pleased to report that Nova Scotia won the 9th Oxford Cup debating tournament, held in Vancouver this weekend. Rory Flynn and Mattea Roach of Sacred Heart defeated 43 other teams from across Canada to win the tournament.
Nova Scotia was well represented at the Oxford Cup with strong performances by Grace McNutt and Ainslie Pierrynowski and Ashna Asim and Elzbieta Wawer of Sydney Academy.
As the winning team, Rory and Mattea qualify to represent Canada at Oxford University in March. (Last year, the girls attended the under fifteen English tournament at Cambridge University, where they finished 1st and 2nd individually.)
The second place Oxford Cup team was from Saskatchewan. The third place team was from Ontario. Both teams also qualify to go to Oxford.
The 2014 tournament will be held in Montreal at Selwyn House School, likely the same weekend in November.
2013 and been a very good one for Sacred Heart debaters.
It opened with Sabrina Secord and Anya Friesen winning the Dalhousie Atlantics. It was followed by Rory and Mattea winning the Queen’s University High School tournament, Rory, Anya and Catherine Burke winning the junior high provincials, Rory and Mattea placing 1st and 2nd individually at Cambridge, Rory and Anya winning the junior high nationals, Rory and Mattea winning McGill and of course now, the Oxford Cup. In the meanwhile Mattea’s team beat Rory’s team to win the finals in Germany. (The girls were separated so that Rory would have an opportunity to experience what it was like debating against Mattea).
Our teams made it to the break rounds in 5 events we did not win—the Senior High provincials, the Donahoe Cup, the National Championships, the Impromptus and the Dalhousie BP tournament. We cannot win every tournament, of course—judging expectations vary from one part of the country to another, our best debaters are sometimes tied up with other activities and our teams are not perfect. However, we won as many events as every other school in the country put together, and it is not reasonable to expect more than that.
Well done, all. In the meanwhile we have qualified to have three teams attend the senior nationals next year, and we have great expectations for 2014.
My thanks to our other coaches (Andrew Aven Gillis, Sebastian Young, Andrew Mayo, Kathryn Bjornson, Rory Flynn, Meghan Carlson and Clarissa Brisseau) and to the parents who do so much (billeting, judging, organizing) to make our program successful.
