NEWARK, NJ - Newark debaters have moved quickly to make their mark in the Northeast region during the first month of the 2011-2012 marking one of three quickest starts in the 33 year storied history of Newark's debate program. During the weekend of September 23-26, Brick City's debaters powered their way through a field of 30 teams from five states - New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina and New Hampshire. Of the 8 teams that qualified for quarterfinals, four were from Newark. University HS was seeded 1st (5-0 prelim record), American History was seeded 2nd (5-0 prelim). Newark Science cleared two teams seeded 7th and 8th, both with 3-2 prelim records. The remaining four quarterfinal teams were Bronx Law, McDowell HS (NC), Nashau HS (NH), and Lexington HS (MS)

As a result of the seedings, the teams from Newark were paired against each other in the quarterfinals. Science Park defeated University (Sean Hammond and Omer Bhatti) and American History defeated the other Science Park team (Jaysen Bazille and Paul Viegas). Nashua and Bronx advanced out of their respective quarterfinal rounds.

In the first semifinal round Science Park (Thais Marques and Flavia Borotelo) lost to Nashua HS. In the second semifinal round American History defeated Bronx Law . This set a championship round at the Yale Invitational between American History (Quamir Johnson and Jazir Beckford) and Nashua HS of New Hampshire.

Johnson and Beckford closed their 2010-2011 season with a quarterfinal finish at the Urban Debate National Championship Tournament and now looked for revenge against the Nashua team who had just eliminated Science Park. On at 2 -1 decision Johnson and Beckford lost to Nashua and finished second out of the 30 team field.

Newark also dominated the speaker award field at Yale taking 7 of the top 10 in a field of sixty.

1st speaker - Omar Bhatti (University)
2nd speaker - Jazir Beckford (American History)
3rd speaker - Sean Hammond (University)
4th speaker - Quamir Johnson (American History)
7th speaker - Jaysen Bazille (Science Park)
9th speaker - Thais Marquis (Science Park)
10th speaker - Paul Viegas (Science Park)

One week later 9 Newark teams traveled to Monticello to compete against 20 teams from three states (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania). Elimination rounds began with semifinals. The four teams qualifying with Edgemont HS (Scarsdale, New York), Lakeland HS (Shrub Oak, NY) and two teams from Newark - Science Park and University.

During semifinals, Edgemont HS (1st seed) defeated University (4th seed) and Science Park (2nd seed) defeated Lakeland HS (3rd seed). The final round for the Kaiser Invitiational was Edgemont facing Science Park.

On a 3-0 decision from the judge panel Science Park (Thais Marques and Flavia Borotelo) defeated Edgemont HS earning Newark its first tournament championship of the 2011-2012 season.

Newark again dominated the speaker award field taking 6 of the top 10

1st speaker - Flavia Borotelo (Science Park)
2nd speaker - Thais Marques (Science Park)
3rd speaker - Andrew Alvarado (University)
5th speaker - Dazir Moses (American History)
8th speaker - Lizbett Mendoza (Technology)
10th speaker - Deliris Diaz (East Side)