Club Profile: Speech and Debate

Their actions are loud, but their words are louder. Yes, we are talking about the outspoken Speech and Debate girls here at Presentation.

Currently Speech and Debate has 112 members, according to Coach Tim Case, who has been with the team for five years. This is a significant amount of members compared to the team’s first year when there were about 12 girls.

There are two types of speeches—platform and interpretive. In platform, the speeches are written by the speakers themselves. These can be either persuasive or informative. Interpretive speeches allow the speakers to act, be humorous, dramatic and compete as a duo.

As for debates, there are two categories—Lincoln Douglas and Public Forum.  For Lincoln Douglas, an individual can argue many concepts from values to policies to juveniles being tried as adults. Public Forum is a crossfire between two pairs of partners that argue current events.

Emily Purvis, debate captain, likens her experience on the team to that of a sports team. “Everyone works together and helps each other, which gives members on the team a sense of community.

“Speech and Debaters are quirky, intelligent and funny. [We] fight terrible grammar, bad posture and awkward hand gestures as, yes, ninjas in suits.”

Of course “ninjas in suits” need coaches. And, as Purvis describes the team’s coaches, they’re pretty much ninjas themselves, too. “Mr. Case spends enormous amounts of time and energy running the team and helping out frantic debaters. He cares a lot more than he lets on, but don’t tell him I said that.”

She continued, “Mrs. Heil is super helpful, and she’s so caring that a lot of the speech kids refer to her as the ‘Team Mom.”

When asked about why he likes Speech and Debate, Mr. Case said he likes the skills that members develop—communication and standing up for oneself.

Freshman Carolyn DiLoreto, whose event is humorous interpretation, said, “It’s a lot of fun making other people laugh and using a bunch of crazy voices for the characters in my piece! I also enjoy watching myself improve and learning what I can do to make my piece even funnier.”

Purvis, on the other hand, said, “As a total nerd, I love researching new topics and finding arguments that I think are interesting and different. It’s actually really exciting to learn about such a wide variety of problems in our world and how international relations, domestic policy and different theories of philosophy and politics interact.”

For Purvis, there is more than researching new topics and problems. She said, “I really like the complexity and subtle logical nuances inherent to a lot of the issues we explore. I also really love the people in Speech and Debate. Some of my best friends are on the team here at Pres, and I have a smattering of friends from throughout the area and throughout the country. It’s really awesome being able to hang out with friends while participating in activity that I really like to do.”

According to Mr. Case, members compete in tournaments across the Bay Area, California and the United States.

“Tournaments are massive pilgrimages of nerds in suits to unsuspecting high school and college campuses,” said Purvis. Students go to their designated classrooms or auditoriums for the their rounds to compete against other students. They are usually judged by coaches who have participated in the event in high school and are sometimes parents, according to Purvis. she continued, “Tournaments are notorious for being super crowded, serving terrible food, and running very late.”

Diloreto has a different view on tournaments. “What I like most about S&D is the thrill of competing and watching other HI competitors perform,” she said.

The team has general meetings every Wednesday. Speakers practice their speeches on Wednesdays and any day after. Lincoln Douglas debaters practice Tuesdays, and Public Forum debaters on Thursdays.

Yes, ninjas in suits. The members of the Speech and Debate team are pretty amazing. Perhaps this is why Mr. Case encourages girls from all class levels to join. And well, as he said, “it is a structured way to interact with guys.”

Legitimately Loquacious: Speech and Debate Kicks Off the Year

 During the election season, it is nearly impossible to turn on the TV without hearing about a candidate’s upcoming speech or an impending presidential debate. These events are meant to showcase the candidates’ intelligence and eloquence, in order to garner votes from the public. However, these politicians are not the only ones who can deliver moving speeches or argue salient points. Members of Presentation’s Speech and Debate Team did just that on Sep. 24-26 at the Saint Francis Invitational Tournament in Mountain View.

Although only a small portion of the team could make this first tournament, Presentation girls still started the new speech and debate season off strong. Sophomore Michelle Morris advanced to the octofinal rounds of Lincoln-Douglas debate, and sophomore Sonam Jindal, senior Grace Armstrong and junior Emily Purvis all advanced to the quarterfinal rounds. Purvis was also honored as the fourth place speaker overall in debate.

Speech girls also represented our school well. Sara Cois, senior, was awarded third place in Original Advocacy, and Teresa Matthew, junior, won third place in Expository Speaking. Alisha Azevedo, senior, also won third place in Original Oratory, and Ritika Pai, freshman, was the second place finisher. Lastly, Natasha Sosa, junior, won first place in Oratorical Interpretation.

All these events may be unfamiliar to those who aren’t a member of the team. Lincoln-Douglas debate is one of the various types of debate students can participate in. It is a single-person event, and it consists of debating on a topic that changes every two months, using a good deal of research in order to back up arguments. Original Advocacy is a speech event, one that consists of a speech written by the performer that addresses an issue in society and proposes legislation in order to combat that issue. Original Oratory is similar, in that it also discusses an issue or topic of interest, but this event doesn’t require feasible legislation to be proposed. Topics are usually more abstract. Another strong event for Pres is Expository Speaking, which involves writing a creative, humorous, and pun-filled speech on an everyday topic that is punctuated by clever visuals. Oratorical Interpretation is a little different, in that the student does not write the piece, but instead performs a speech previously performed by a person of interest.

Perhaps some of the success Pres had at this tournament is due to the strong coaching staff working with the team this year. Joining head coach Mr. Case and speech coach Mrs. Heil are two new coaches. Mr. Mumper is the new debate coach, and Mrs. Bengtson is the new speech coach.

“Mr. Mumper has been really great; I like having him as a coach,” said Vivian Ascencio, junior. “When we have questions, we can go to him. He helps us figure out if our arguments are any good.”

“I think that it’s nice to have someone on campus like Mrs. Bengtson who’s always willing to help,” said Sara Cois, senior. “She’s a good resource and another set of ears, which can never hurt.”

This tournament, in addition to being a big success for Pres, also allowed students to get used to competing again and to learn how to improve their speeches for better performances in the future.

“One of the good things about a tournament so early is that it gave me a reason to get my speech memorized,” said Nicole Bruno, sophomore. “This first performance was okay, but I know that I definitely need to work on it. I learned that I need to make my characters more clear.”

The Presentation speech and debate team is already off to a good start, and if they manage to use this experience to build on their early success, it is likely that they will have a spectacular year.

Speech and Debate Update

Indescribable… indestructible…nothing can stop it! No, I am not referring to The Blob (though if you’ve ever seen people early morning at a tournament…) but rather Presentation’s Speech and Debate team. Armed with nimble tongues and witty words, this club has expanded from its humble beginnings of thirteen members to a now astonishing number of 90! Compared to Bellarmine and Leland, Pres’ foremost competitors, the Presentation team has always been diminutive in size. Now, however, it seems that Pres is slowly catching up. The size of a team is important, as the larger the team the more students, parent judges, and resources available. This year, the team will be aided with the addition of Mr. Mumper and Mrs. Bengston, the new debate and speech coaches respectively. Mr. Case, the official moderator of the Speech and Debate team, is working hard to ensure that students will be able to make it to more tournaments, including invitational tournaments that are outside the boundaries of the league.

 

But despite any major changes and additions, and possibly even because of them, the Presentation Speech and Debate team is expected to be closer than ever before. Team members are now expected to stay for the award ceremonies at the end of tournaments. Not only will this provide more support and encouragement for teammates, but it will also allow for more team bonding. In addition, a new mentoring program has been added to the team, allowing for new and returning members alike to have better communication with the club officers. As described by Speech President Alisha Azevedo, “The mentoring program provides the opportunity for girls getting started in Speech and Debate to receive one on one attention from more experienced members. It’s great for team bonding as a whole.” With the support of new coaches, officers and members, practices will become more stream-lined, and tournaments will be even more enjoyable. All in all, this year is shaping up to be a great one for the Presentation Speech and Debate team. After all, it’s indescribable, indestructible, and with luck, nothing is going to stop it.

Speech and Debate Goes to State

This year the Presentation Speech and Debate Program has nearly doubled in size to a group of 60 talented girls. Due to their year-round dedication to the activity, many of them qualified to attend the State Tournament held at Culver City High School in Los Angeles, CA a few weeks ago.

To qualify for States, speech and debaters must compete and do considerably well at state qualifying tournaments during March. Pres was thrilled to send eight competitors and have two alternate competitors this year – an unprecedented amount! To reach this level of excellence students had to put in countless hours of practice to revise their scripts, presentations and debate cases.

At States, Presentation was exceptionally successful. Senior Grace Lin advanced to the Octo-Finals of Lincoln Douglas debate taking 9th place overall in the event. Lin elaborates on her State Championship experience. “I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun at one tournament. It was especially exciting to see everyone do so well. During the awards ceremony, every time someone from our team was getting an award, we would all hold hands tightly as a kind of ritual. And we definitely cheered the loudest. Though we were only 8 people, everyone in the auditorium looked at us when we screamed.”

Senior Rachel Giacalone advanced to the Final round of Dramatic Interpretation taking 3rd place overall in the event.  Senior Madeleine Heil advanced to the Final round of Humorous Interpretation taking 5th place overall in the event. Sophomore Sarah Khasrovi advanced to the Final round of Original Prose and Poetry taking 6th place overall in the event.

Junior Sara Cois advanced to the Semi-Final round of Original Advocacy taking 18th place overall in the event. “States has been a phenomenal experience, I did not expect to ever do so well in my life, and to be competing with people who are the top of their area it was scary but at the same time thrilling.,” says Cois. “It was just an overall fun experience. I bonded with team members and people from other schools.” Also competing were: senior Emily Shu in Original Interpretation, sophomore Tanya Padgaonkar in Expository Speaking and freshman Mandy Heiser in Thematic Interpretation.

Each year at the State Tournament, the top three schools in three different categories are honored with a Sweepstakes award based upon the accomplishments of the competitors from these schools.  As a result of their outstanding achievements, Pres was awarded 3rd place overall in the 5-17 Competitor Sweepstakes. This is an amazing accomplishment considering that Presentation, with 8 qualifiers, was in the race against schools that had as many as 17 qualifiers. This honor is a testament to the significant growth the program has experienced and the increasingly high quality students and coaches involved in the activity.

To celebrate this year’s success, the Presentation Speech and Debate Team hosted a Speech Showcase for team members, their families and anyone interested in enjoying a night of remarkable talent and tasty food. Cois, next year’s team president, sums up the overall sentiments surrounding this year’s success. “I have met some of my best friends with this program and will be thrilled to meet more next year.” One last congratulations to all those who contributed to the success of the team and competed at the state tournament! The future is looking bright for Presentation Speech and Debate.