Education

Deep Run student places 5th at national debate tournament

, and Citizen Staff Reports

June 28, 2020 . 11:24 PM

2 min read

A Deep Run High School student finished fifth in a national debate tournament that was held entirely online.

For the first time in more than 20 years, students representing the Richmond region qualified for the National Speech and Debate Tournament; in total, eight students participated in the nation’s largest academic competition, all of them making history by being the first-ever qualifiers from their schools.

Of the eight qualifiers, Tani Washington of Deep Run H.S. placed fifth in Informative Speaking, putting her in the top one tenth of one percent of speech and debate students in the nation.

As a seasoned competitor, Washington has won first place at the National Catholic Forensics League Tournament in Declamation and Original Oratory, and first place in the 2018 VHSL State Forensics Tournament in Prose. She is headed to Western Kentucky University on a forensics scholarship where she will continue competing with plans to study international affairs and economics.

“The things I love about forensics are the passion each student displays when speaking, the camaraderie in each round, and the ability I get to share a piece of myself with my audience,” said Washington, who is also DRHS Forensics Team captain. "When I first came to Deep Run in 2017, I was the only competitor on the team. With the help of the [Richmond Region Speech & Debate] Initiative, our Forensics team has grown to over a dozen students and we had the privilege of receiving our first regional sweepstakes trophy this year."

“We were thrilled to support our national qualifiers this year and couldn’t be more proud of their hard work, the hard work of all of our sponsored teams, and the many hours invested by their coaches,” said Sandra Wheeler of The Richmond Forum, which founded the Richmond Region Speech & Debate Initiative. “This is a great ending to this season when so many other tournaments, including the Virginia High School League, which hosts the state competition, were canceled.”