Members of the speech and debate team kicked off their season with the Coastal Forensics League Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum Tournament on Nov. 15 and the John Lewis Tournament on Nov. 21.
Sophomores Michael Duan and junior Richard Chen advanced to elimination rounds in John Lewis after winning four of six preliminary rounds. The speech side brought two champions, with sophomore Sarah Musani winning Open Declamation and freshman Aaryan Shah winning Novice Humorous Interpretation.
“The competition was tough but it was fun going as a team. It was definitely a good learning experience for everyone,” Musani said.
To prepare for the November tournaments, the team hosted a mock tournament on Nov. 3 in the school cafeteria. They planned to continue on Nov. 5, but had to cancel for a coach’s medical emergency. Makeup rounds were hosted on Nov. 12, allowing students to practice their respective skills before big upcoming tournaments.
The speech and debate mini-tournament was designed to slowly introduce novice speech and debate members into the competitive environment of a debate without the stress of a real tournament. Competitors were expected to dress up, do a coin flip to determine speaking order and wait in anticipation for pairings like a real tournament. This year’s tournament ran with 25 students competing and 10 student veterans judging for 12 planned rounds, until things got cut short due to a medical emergency.
The categories of the mini-tournament covered a wide range of events and types of public speaking, which provided opportunity to an extensive number of students. The speech events of the tournament include Original Oratory, Impromptu and Extemporaneous Speaking, and the debate events consisted of Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas.
“The competition experience can be daunting at first, especially invitationals with upwards of 200 teams and six preliminary rounds, where it’s more demoralizing to have a low win rate,” debate president Sanyukta Ravishankar said. “I’ve been there before, and looking back, doing even more intraschool practice rounds would’ve helped me grow a lot faster.”
Last year, the mini-tournament was hosted over the span of one day, but the large attendance and success of the event influenced club leadership to extend it.
Freshman Amay Puri said, “I definitely struggled a lot more than I thought I would as I wasn’t really prepared to speak publicly. However, I learned a lot from helpful varsity members who seemed really talented and helped foster a good environment where improvement was all that mattered.”
The leadership of the speech and debate club aimed to provide a safe space for new students to experience the thrill of the activity without the additional pressure and stress. Veteran club members continuously supported and gave advice to novices in between their speeches, relieving them of pressure and allowing them to improve even further within their respective events.
“The experience from the tournament allowed me to prepare my speeches better and know what arguments to expect when I went to CFL, ” sophomore Andres Wang said. “It definitely allowed me and my partner to win more rounds and gain more experience.”
