With words too quick to hear and ideas too complex to process, the average teenager can hardly keep track of what goes on when observing a speech and debate tournament. Missile defense in space—that much can be deciphered between high-level political terminology and complicated, technical acronyms.
Speech and debate students have faced many competitions in the past few weeks. At the tournaments on the weekends of Sept. 16 and Oct. 2, these students spoke at a mile a minute in freshly-ironed suits and dress shirts. The team took first place for Debate Sweepstakes at the Jack Howe Memorial Speech and Debate Invitational at CSU Long Beach on Oct. 2. They also received second place for Debate Sweepstakes at their Varsity Debate tournament that took place on Sep. 16 and 17. The speech and debate students will be competing again at CSU Fullerton from Oct. 21 to 23.
The students took turns speaking, presenting the facts and reasoning to support their side of the argument. When they spoke, they drew figures in the air with their hands, like symphony conductors. After a debater presented their case, the opposing student had a period of time to rebut the claims made. Meanwhile, the judge for the debate sat at a desk in the corner of the classroom; her brain was a sponge that absorbed the information presented to her.
The debate then would grow heated—generally the most exciting part for observers. Their argument becomes an eruption of tension, a fight to make a point. But then the timer would beep, and all conversation would stop.
They think so quickly. Their brains constantly spew out information and new calculations. Are they aliens? Robots? No, they are hard-working teenagers. A superhuman brain is not required to speak well and understand what is happening in the world. They just need passion and dedication, and they will be on their way to becoming a speech and debate student.
When asked about her dedication to Speech and Debate, senior, Claire Li said, “I live and breathe this stuff.” Li has been in Speech and Debate for all four years of high school, and is the only member of the team that competes in both speech and debate.
Participating in Speech and Debate can be quite the balancing act, however, as students have school and other extracurricular activities they must attend to as well. The team has competitions two to three times a month, sometimes at local schools, but other times at college campuses like UC Berkeley.
Freshman Riley Murphy is a new member to the Speech and Debate team and already has a full schedule with tennis, Comedy Sportz, and band. Murphy said, “I wanted to join Speech and Debate because a lot of my friends were in it, and in middle school, I really looked up to the Speech and Debate kids.”
Li is a very active student as well, and remarked about her involvement with Speech and Debate, “I have no soul anymore, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Debating can provide some interesting experiences as well as being something good to put on one’s college applications. Li said, “Once I received the topic of beef E. coli contamination, and got to rage at the entire congress for three minutes about beef.” The debate subjects vary, but always guarantee interesting responses and research.
The speech and debate team made individual achievements, as well. At the tournament on Oct. 2, George Iourov was the top speaker in JV Policy. Devin Parham received 15th best speaker in Lincoln Douglas Debate, while Kevin Gallagher was the 15th best speaker in Novice Policy. In Policy Debate, Kennan Rodewald and Delaney Duff were Quarter Finalists. To view more competition results, visit speech and debate’s Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/100353413406944/?id=109640512478234.