Alexia Rigoni
Anhaar Kareem
Darshanik Aryal
Eamonn O'Loughlin
Helena Piazza
Iris Lee
Jason Lin
Jehiel Pather
Michael Kwak
Nara Gong
Nikki Han
Oliver Hoang
Looks like another good group of talent again this year! I’m assuming State Team will be captained by Darshanik Aryal, he’s currently probably the best speaker (at a HS level) in the State and has been State Team/Reserve since Year 10.
Fingers crossed the team this year, under Udai Kamath and Sophie Shead (fantastic coaches no doubt), can finally bring the Nationals Trophy back to NSW! It’s been a while. ☹
Last year, the turbo-powered State Team consisting of Jules Bako, Jack Story, Toby Mok and Darshanik Aryal who made up a half of the Australian contingent unfortunately just missed out in the Grand Final. That probably speaks to the improved quality of other States on the circuit so we can’t get complacent this year, especially given a lot of the brightest talent on the NSW schools circuit has moved onto better things on the bigger, brighter, more prestigious stage of university debating. But I’m sure this year’s team will do us proud nonetheless.
In terms of Representative Teams, does anyone have any early calls? May be a controversial pick, but I’m calling it between CHS or Archdale this year. Archdale because they have a deep pool of talent including Nikki Han (
Queenwood, 12), Helena Piazza (
SCEGGS, 12) and Charlotte Allan (
Abbotsleigh, 12). From what I’ve heard they also performed well last year, particularly in their Seconds meaning they have a good reserve of talent to call up. Their coaches last year also spoke high praise of them. CHS because they won last year and have a pretty bloody strong reserve of debaters to also call up that are leftover from last year’s winning contingent such as Darshanik Aryal (
James Ruse, 12), Alexia Rigoni (
Cammergayl, 12) and Abrar Chowdhury (
SBHS, 12). But most of their SB/SG powered team last year consisting of Neva Mikulic (
SGHS), Tim Hanna (
SBHS) and Archie Wolifson (
SBHS) have moved onto the uni debating scene at USYD. And their coaching regiment is always strong. They have talent in the Year 11s coming to the fore this year – particularly from SGHS. Their Year 11s should be strong this year, a good number of them made callbacks this year and Anhaar Kareem debates for them now. We could see more good stuff coming from SGHS in the near future!
I'm leaving out GPS for now because I legitimately don't have much clue as to what the teams may look like this year. I know Grammar has good talent (as usual) in the form of Kasra Roushan, Remy Sloan and the illustrious Aidan Woo’s (maybe sweatier?) little brother James Woo. Joeys has lost Xavier Leaver from their underdog winning side last year so GPS won’t have him this year but their Year 11 GPS Seconds winning side should have some strong talent. Matt Toomey’s done fantastic things with their program. All-in-all, don't have much of a clue what the Reps side for GPS will shape up to look like this year.
Less super-powered debaters/debating sides could be a good thing this year to be honest. It’s kind of fun not being able to call everything from the get-go and having there being a good tussle between all the schools.