Extemp: Two Qualify for Dallas Nationals

The Lakeville South Speech team has qualified two students for the 2011 NFL National Tournament, held this June in Dallas.

Leema John and Jack Ryan finished the qualifying tournament as semifinalists.  Competing in International Extemp, 9th grader Logan Roberts finished in 5th place.

Dylan Adelman, also a 9th grader, qualified for nationals in Domestic Extemp.  After a break-out tournament the previous weekend at the highly-competitive Lakeville North tournament, he made the switch to Domestic Extemp and it paid off for him.  In the final round, Dylan spoke on the value of collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Qualifying for the 4th time in as many years, Dylan Slinger was the champion in both International Extemp Speaking and Domestic Extemp speaking.  In the final round of Domestic Extemp, he answered the question, “What can the federal government do to reduce the deficit?”  In the final round of International Extemp his question was, “Is civil war inevitable for Côte d’Ivoire?”

As a freshman and again as a sophomore, Dylan finished in quarterfinals at Nationals in Domestic Extemp.  Last year he was the final round champion in Domestic Extemp.  This year he gave up his automatic qualification in Domestic Extemp and is going to compete in International Extemp.  Dylan was also recognized as the 2011 Southern Minnesota Student of The Year.

 

Our NFL Roots

As Julie Andrews once implored, you need to start at the very beginning.  Pictured above is Ray Kolbe, who was the first debate coach that Lakeville ever had (as far as we know).  Mr. Kolbe judged me when I was in high school — there was a time where there were a lot of St. Francis vs. Lakeville debates in those days.  My lasting memory of him is his joy when Lakeville next qualified for nationals in 1984.

This is the first page of the records as they were kept by the NFL. Mr. Kolbe made Lakeville a member of the National Forensic League in 1965.   By 1971 Ray Kolbe had earned his first NFL Diamond and in 1972 Lakeville was recognized as the largest NFL chapter in the Twin Cities.  The first trip to nationals took place in 1974 – Brett Gemlo qualified in Congress.

The NFL has provided us with a PDF that is a copy of our entire NFL history.