Shady Side Academy Speech and Debate Team members Antoni Yotov and Koji Shimada competed as part of Team USA at the 31st World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship (WIDPSC), held in Cape Town, South Africa, at the Bishops School from April 9-14, 2018.

The "Worlds" tournament featured 120 student competitors from 10 countries: Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, India, Lithuania, South Africa, South Korea, United Kingdom and USA. Each student competes (in English) in four events in the preliminary rounds: Impromptu Speaking, Parliamentary Debating, Interpretive Reading, and either After-Dinner Speaking or Persuasive Speaking. The top 8-12 students in each event advance to the finals, then the top 2-4 students in the finals advance to the grand finals, and then a winner is chosen in each event.

Yotov, a senior participating in Worlds for the third straight year, placed third in the preliminary round and advanced to the finals in Interpretive Reading. He showcased a great Bulgarian accent in his reading of Miroslav Penkov's Buying Lenin, the story of a grandfather stuck in his ancient ways who guides his grandson.

Shimada, a junior participating in his first Worlds, placed fourth in the preliminary round and advanced to the finals in After-Dinner Speaking. In his humorous speech, he took on the persona of Walt Disney back from the dead and addressing new Disney employees on orientation day.

The students were accompanied by speech and debate coach Mary Krauland and Mrs. Yotov, taking a 16-hour transatlantic flight to South Africa. There they learned how to take 90-second showers and conserve water, as Cape Town is experiencing a drought that usually occurs only once every 100 years! The group saw and hiked on Table Mountain and listened to Christo Brand, one of Nelson Mandela's jailers who eventually became a friend of Mandela.

Shady Side Academy students have traveled the world to compete in WIDPSC every year since 2013, and SSA hosted the international tournament in Pittsburgh in 2016. Next year, WIDPSC will be held in Toronto, Canada.

Congratulations, Antoni and Koji!