Speech and debate team to go across the country

As the speech and debate team expands, there has been considerable interest in going to higher level tournaments across the country. 

In response, coach Erik Rector has created a travel team that will go to high level tournaments across the country. The travel team members have not been named yet. 

To be on the travel team, members must have an outstanding record in league tournaments. For debate events, teams must have a perfect record in a league tournament, and for individual events, participants need to have broken to the next round certain tournaments.

“These tournaments will be more educational, and our team members will get a chance to face some of the best debaters in the nation,” Rector said.

Junior Kushal Haran added, “This will allow our school to test our abilities with the upper echelon of high school debate competition. A travel team provides us with another amazing experience, which makes doing this activity fun.”

Aside from the local tournaments such as Berkeley, Stanford, Santa Clara University and league tournaments, the travel team will compete in tournaments the around the nation for the first time.

According to Rector, going to these tournaments will increase the team’s chances of going to the national tournament, or the Tournament of Champions.

  For team members who have already met the requirements to be on the travel team, attending high-level tournaments will also allow them to show their abilities and prepare for important tournaments later on in the year such as State Qualifiers.

Most of the events that the travel team will compete in take place in the beginning of the year. This will allow members to get experience for future tournaments in the league.

Senior Neil Prasad, who qualified for the state tournament last year in extemporaneous speaking, thinks that the travel team will prepare him and others for major events like National Qualifiers and UC Berkeley Invitational.

“I feel like this team was created for those who are more qualified and talented,” Prasad said. “We have a talented team from last year’s juniors and sophomores, and this will show us how well we do against teams from other states.”