Speech and debate team continues to succeed in competition

Speech+and+debate+team+continues+to+succeed+in+competition

 

If there are people in this school who know how to speak so persuasively, it’s the speech and debate team. Recently, members of this team earned major victories at their last tournament on September 24.

In Lincoln Douglas, a one- on -one debate surrounding a moral issue, senior Chris Hare took first place. The issue was whether adolescents should be able to make their own medical decisions.  “It’s a big confidence booster for us and our school and I feel like it really inspired the team and I’m really proud of myself for it.”

Mrs. Joanna Dallam, the advisor for the group, believed this was a big moment for Hare. “He’s been waiting for that for years and preparing for it for years. The question now is can he do it again.”

In Reader’s theater, where are group of three to ten people read a play, Olivia Brown, Cassidy McGinty, and Ari Colon-Pappaterra gained first place. “We are awesome. I really like being a part of speech and debate because all we do is win,” said Brown.  Dallam wasn’t surprised they achieved first. “They have chemistry. They’re an exciting trio.”

Gia Tserkis captured second in declamation. “Gia Tserkis has never competed in declamation. For her to win second place is amazing,” said Dallam.    Hannah Herron and Wyatt Ortman, a brand new team, won second in team debate. Dallem expects they will do as well as before.  “They want to win this time, and they might. Be awesome if they do,” said Dallam.

This team does have ways of preparing for these debates. Team members do independent research on their topics. Often, if they’re not going against each other, they share notes.  According to Hare, they all want to “have the strongest argument but we don’t use it against  each other.”   “Each person prepares either their debate or their speech for the prose piece by themselves and then we show them to Mrs. Dallam and write our intros,” Brown said.

Just because they prepare, doesn’t mean they’re still not worried. “There’s always that moment where you don’t know if you’re going to do good or not especially right before [the debate]. But once you get started and get going, you start to get into rhythm, you start to really feel like you got this,” Hare said.

Dallam was worried for the new sophomore, who she never met before this, because she didn’t know how they would do “in the pressure of the moment,” but she confirmed “They did beautifully, so my concerns were unfounded.”