The Kudos Speech and Debate team achieved fantastic success at National Junior Forensic League Nationals in Birmingham, Alabama, last year.  Many of those students moved on to continue their success in High School. This year Mr. Strauss, head coach, and Mr. Freeman, assistant coach, brought a smaller and younger group to the newly renamed National Speech and Debate Association Middle School Nationals, to Kansas.   The small size of the entries did not hinder the team from achieving a School of Excellence in Debate.  Out of 101 Middle School Teams, Kudos was one of only five to earn this distinction and this marks the third consecutive School of Excellence in Debate.

The competitors arrived in Overland Park, Kansas, a day early so they could work on updating their arguments because of changes in recent current events regarding the topic on Russia and Ukraine.  Kudos also brought in Mr. Christopher Loghry, who coached Emporia State University to the first and only dual national championship (CEDA and NDT) in the history of collegiate policy debate, so all the competitors could receive an equal amount of attention during the preparation.  They then had a hearty team dinner at Fiorella Jack’s Steak BBQ hosted by Kudos. The hard work and dedication paid off. In speech events, Catherine Szeto made it to Semifinals in Impromptu.  Kelly Wong and Jonathan Liu both advanced to Semifinals in Congressional Debate. 
Isaac Martinez, who was coached by Kudos Speech Coach Ralph Seymour at St. Rita School, finished in Sixth Place in Storytelling.

       Caty Szeto with brother Brandon

      Isaac Martinez

In Public Forum Debate, under the guidance of Mr. Strauss, Kudos team continued their sustained success from previous years.  The competition was fierce, with 99 teams in total (198 contestants) from best schools in the country. Mei Johnson and Michael Huang finished preliminary rounds as the 5-0 undefeated 4^th seed.  Kelly Wong and Cicily Deng were the 20^th seed.  Both teams advanced to doubles and Kelly Wong was honored as the 8^th overall speaker for individual performance in preliminary rounds, and Mei Johnson the 16^th.  Although the Ian Chen – Vincent Liu team participated in the Nationals for the first time, they ended with a shining 3-2 overall record.

Mei Johnson and Michael Huang

   Kelly Wong

Cicily Deng

Ian Chen

Vincent Liu

Kudos may have only sent 12 competitors to nationals, but 9 brought home trophies when they returned to Los Angeles on Saturday, June 21^st. Every single debate entry had a winning record, and they made it deep into elimination rounds.  Because of that, it is no surprise that they won School of Excellence in Debate for the third year in a row.  Out of that 12, only Cicily Deng, Catherine Szeto, and Jonathan Liu will be graduating, so the group will be even bigger next year when Kudos shoots for a fourth school of excellence award in 2015.While Kudos has achieved National Championships in both Public Forum and Policy Debate in past years, they never had a Lincoln-Douglas team advance to elimination rounds.  This year, Kudos brought two entries in Lincoln-Douglas and they both wound up making it far into elimination rounds.  Jonathan Liu led the way with a Quarterfinalist finish.  Justin Jiang made it to Octafinals and finished as the 8^th overall speaker in preliminary rounds, while Jonathan Liu garnered the 14^th speaker award.

Jonathan Liu

Justin Jiang