At the Coastal Forensics League (CFL) Speech Tournament at Evergreen Valley High School on Dec. 2, the speech team took home two awards, a major improvement from the previous CFL Milpitas speech tournament in late October in which the team was shut out.

Junior Anishi Patel received seventh place in Oratorical Interpretation, an event where competitors interpret and deliver a previously publicly delivered speech, while freshman Selina Chen received sixth place in Program of Oral Interpretation, a less popular event where speakers must combine three pieces of writing (poem, prose or article about their topic) into a 10-minute speech.  

Chen’s  speech was about a Chinese mother and her struggles with her Americanized children.

“My speech doesn't have a very good argument, but there's a lot of interesting acting involved,” Chen said.

Chen contributes her unique speech to her success at the tournament.

The top seven competitors in each event received a wild card, which results in an extra spot in addition to on top of the standard spots given to each school during the March State Quals tournament. Each school is permitted a total of 22 entries at the State Quals Individual Events tournament, but wildcards are not counted as part of the 22 entries.

Patel and Chen both received wildcards for their performance during the tournament, guaranteeing them a spot in State Quals, while the rest of the speech team did not make it past preliminary rounds in their respective events.

Twelve different speech events were offered at the tournament. There was no distinction between varsity and JV.