Soufiane Choubani
Soufiane Choubani (born June 13, 1984 in Casablanca) is a Moroccan professor and international debate coach who grew up in Franklin Park, New Jersey, United States for most of his life.[1] After finishing university, he worked a few jobs around the world before moving back to Morocco. After returning to Morocco for the second time in 2012, he founded of the Moroccan National Debate Team in 2014 [2][3] and then traveled to Sfax and Tunis, Tunisia to form the Tunisian National Debate Team in the fall of 2015 [4]
Early life
Growing up in Somerset, New Jersey, he attended Franklin High School and played on the varsity soccer team during the fall seasons and ran varsity track and field during the winter and spring seasons with future star teammates Jeff Porter & Joe Porter (American football).[5] While growing up in Frankin Park and attending their school system for nearly 10 years, he ultimately graduated from North Brunswick Township High School in North Brunswick, New Jersey played his last year of high school soccer with Sean Cameron (footballer) on the varsity team. That season, Sean and Soufiane would go on to win the division championship and set the school record for best season record with 17 wins, 2 ties and 1 loss while going undefeated for 19 games.
During his junior year of high school, Soufiane ranked in the top 3 in the state in the 800m & 3200m and qualified for the 2002 USA Track & Field Junior Olympics Regional Championship at University of Buffalo in Buffalo, NY, but failed to rank in the top 3 at regionals and missed his chance of competing at the Junior Summer Olympics in 2002,[6] which were held in Jamaica.
Professional career
in 2009, Soufiane became a certified international doping control officer after passing his certification course in Paris. Ironically enough, during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Jeff Porter was an athlete on Team USA Track & Field and Soufiane was a doping control officer for the competition.[7] A month after the summer games, Soufiane received a letter of appreciation from David Cameron for his volunteer service as a DCO.
After coaching university debate teams for two years and receiving the Best Coach in Morocco award, he founded the Moroccan National Debate Team and lead them to the 2014 World Schools Debating Championships in Thailand [8] and the 2015 edition in Singapore [9] as head coach and team manager. The Moroccan National Debate Team made history in 2014 by becoming the first North African Nation to compete in the World Schools Debating Championships.
He still manages Team Morocco as the team manager and head of coaching staff.
Academic career
Soufiane has worked as a Professor of English at a number of universities such as the Université Internationale de Casablanca & SIST Sunderland University in Casablanca and the Institut libre Marie Haps in Brussels, Belgium.
Family
Soufiane is related to Lahbib Choubani, who currently holds the position of Minister of Relations with the Parliament & Civil Society in Abdelilah Benkirane's cabinet.
References
- ↑ "Coaches | Moroccan National Debate Team". Teammorocco.org. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
- ↑ Jabrane, Ezzoubeir. "A Coach Who Believes in Morocco". Morocco World News. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
- ↑ http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2014/06/131925/moroccan-national-debate-team-dominates-national-university-championships/
- ↑ "La bataille des ĂŠcoliers: Elle se tiendra le 7 aoĂťt en ThaĂŻlande | Aujourd'hui le Maroc". Aujourdhui.ma. 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
- ↑ http://www.usatfnj.org/youth/2002JO_15-18_Association%20Meet_Results.html
- ↑ http://www.usatf.org/events/2002/JuniorOlympicsTrackAndField/results/regional/Region2.asp
- ↑ http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2012/06/43588/soufiane-choubani-first-moroccan-doping-control-officer-in-the-olympic-games/
- ↑ http://schoolsdebate.com/tournament/thailand-2014/
- ↑ http://schoolsdebate.com/tournament/singapore-2015/