Upper School boys compete in scholastic contests

Students showcase their Chinese at 42nd Annual James J. Doyle Oral Proficiency Contest

Students in Yi Lee’s Chinese courses challenged themselves and other foreign language students during the 42nd Annual James J. Doyle Oral Proficiency Contest, held at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School. Adam Brown, Thomas Lentz, Delaney Joseph, Robert Goens, and Martin Okonkwo represented Haverford well against a variety of competitors from the area. 

Judges conducted individual interviews with the students to assess proficiency and the group participated in an Interscholastic Trivia Contest on various languages and cultures. 

Brown and Lentz received gold medals for their work; Joseph and Okonkwo received silver medals at the event. 

Upper School boys represent Haverford at 38th Annual Shakespeare Competition

With the support of Upper School English teacher Anthony Pariano, two Upper School boys competed in the English-Speaking Union (ESU), Philadelphia branch’s 38th Annual Shakespeare Competition. Nicholas Safiriou and Talan Maury performed a sonnet and monologue from memory during the competition at the Museum of the American Revolution. In addition to their performance, the group took part in a workshop and had time to explore the museum. 

Safiriou and Maury were selected after performing their selected Shakespearean works in a competition at Haverford in mid-February. The boys were evaluated based on the accuracy of their performance, and the extent to which their voice and gestures complement their words. 

Success at Debate District Tournament 

The Upper School Speech and Debate team showcased their skills during the state’s debate district tournament. 

Joseph Kahana and Michael Crutchlow, members of the Public Forum team, came in second place during the debate competition. The pair won every round, and lost out to the winning team based on speaker points. With their second place finish, they qualified for the state tournament. 

Teammate Ryan Shams was named the 2025 Lincoln Douglas debate district champion during the tournament. Shams received the highest speaker points and won every round.

Haverford students also delivered impressive performances during the Speech State Tournament Qualifier. As history teacher Mr. Foust shared, "Over the last couple weeks, we have qualified seven boys with five of them as district champions!" Charlie Noble earned co-district champion in Humorous Interpretation. Mason Wiegand defended his district championship crown in Extemporaneous Speaking for his third consecutive year. Max Sides won district champion in Informative Speaking. Tiago Ferreira earned district champion in Commentary—Haverford's second champ in as many years. John Randolph delivered a strong performance and will serve as an alternate.

The five district champions will compete at the state tournament at Bloomsburg University next month.