John R. Park Debate Society Finishes Strong at "The Shirley"

The John R Park Debate Society traveled to North Carolina to compete in Wake Forest’s annual policy debate tournament on November 15th - 17th, 2025, “The Shirley.”  The Shirley is widely regarded as the most competitive regular-season tournament. This year, there were 225 entries across three divisions of debate (Novice, JV, and Open). As the award ceremony began, the tournament director informed the crowd that this year was the largest single policy debate tournament on record. While only the U's third policy tournament this season, Utah fielded three partnerships in the Junior Varsity pool, which resulted in the following team awards: 

 

Placings

Octofinalists - JV - Aubrie Powers and Jeremy Parrish 

Octofinalists - JV - Samantha Watrin and Liam Kingery 

 

Speaker Awards (out of 80) 

7th place - Speaker Award - Jeremy Parrish 

8th place - Speaker Award - Aubrie Powers 

 

Placing in the top ten percent of speakers in such a large pool and having two partnerships in the top 16 of 40 JV teams is an incredible accomplishment. There was no easy competition at this tournament.