Bellarmine Speech And Debate Team Garners Superior Performance Awards In National Competition.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- June 2004 National Speech and Debate Championships Cap Winning Year for Bellarmine Team

Bellarmine College Preparatory today announced that its Speech and Debate Team was one of only four school teams in the nation to bring home the prestigious "Schools of Excellence in Speech and Debate" award from this year's National Speech and Debate Championships, held June 14 through 18 in Salt Lake City. Bellarmine was also one of only nine schools to win the "Schools of Excellence in Debate" award. Together the two coveted awards, and many superior individual showings, cap a winning year, which also saw the team win the California State Championship for the second time in a row.

"The Bellarmine Speech and Debate Team continues its tradition of excellence, turning in the strongest overall performance of any team in the nation at the National Championships," said Bill Healy, Faculty Member and Speech and Debate Coach of Bellarmine. "Bellarmine students competed in more than 96 elimination rounds of Debate and 43 rounds of Speech to help clinch the superior team performance awards, with two students in the final rounds of their events and six others finishing in the top 14. All told, it was a stunning performance at the end of a sterling year for the team."

Standout performances at the national competition include:

--Andi Barsan and Christopher Lin in the Lincoln Douglas Debate competition. After 12 rounds, Barsan placed 11th in the nation while Lin placed 2nd in the nation having made it to the 16th and final round.

--David Sepetka, Alex D'Amour, Nik Warrior and T.J. Sheehy debating U.S. Environmental Policy. The team of Sepetka and D'Amour placed 5th in the nation after 13 rounds while the team of Warrior and Sheehy placed 9th following 12 rounds.

--Karan Bhople in International Extemporaneous Speaking. Bhople placed 2nd in the nation after 13 rounds. Also in Extemporaneous Speaking, Jonathon Weed landed 13th place and David Chang achieved quarterfinalist rank.

Co-captained in 2004 by Nikhil Warrior, Alex D'Amour and Andi Barsan, the Bellarmine Speech and Debate Team has competed nationally for more than 40 years. In this year's California State Championships, held in April, the team won first place for the 9th time in the last 15 years. In that competition, Bellarmine students David Sepetka, Alex D'Amour, Robert Bergin, Andi Barsan, Karan Bhople and Jon Weed won individual or co-championships.

About Bellarmine College Preparatory

Bellarmine College Preparatory has been educating young men since 1851, when it was originally founded on the campus of Santa Clara University. The school has been at its current location on Elm Street in San Jose's College Park district for 75 years. Bellarmine students are educated in the Jesuit tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, and are encouraged to become "men for others." While Bellarmine strives for academic excellence, the school also seeks to instill a sense of responsibility through a variety community ministry and service programs. Bellarmine has a current enrollment of 1400 and a faculty/staff of 150.