The speech and debate team participated in the Package Deal tournament on Saturday, October 10, at Arcadia High School, with many Jackrabbits placing highly amongst a field of 280 entrants.
Freshmen Iyanna Blackburn, Dan Dao, Darren Hall, Aiyanna Johns, Thomas Robinett, Coco
Sanabria, and William Terlinden competed in this event. Senior Destin Bigsby accompanied
them as an event judge.
Being the only one of its kind in the nation, the competition gives first-time speakers the chance to explore both the oratorical and argumentative sides of forensics. Only novices, or first year members, are allowed to take part in this tournament.
Participants competed in a variety of events that day, starting off with National Extemp. Students were given 30 minutes to draft a five to seven minute speech on a random topic.
After competing in that round, they moved onto Dramatic Interpretation, which involved students presenting a serious story, play, or published work. Impromptu was the next event, in which they were given two minutes to prepare a five minute speech on a random subject.
“My favorite event would have been the impromptu. It was a new and interesting thing that I hadn’t done before, and I got [the Internet], a topic that I felt I knew perfectly,” said Terlinden.
After a lunch break, students concluded the day with Congressional Debate, in which they were tasked with either defending or opposing proposed legislation.
Participants won ribbons based on their performances in either the morning or afternoon rounds. Terlinden was awarded two ribbons for placing first, second, third, and second in his events. Sanabria and Hall placed highly in Congressional Debate, while Blackburn and Johns placed second in their Dramatic Interpretation rounds.
“The competition was a great experience. It helped all of the new speakers on our team to really get to know how a tournament works and what would be expected of us,” said Johns.
Led by long-time coach Brett Alexander, the speech and debate team has been very successful on the regional and state levels in past years. He has coached several state champions and finalists, all of whom have gone on to attend prestigious universities like Harvard and Stanford.
Their next competition is Fall Novice, which will be held at Gabrielino High School on November 14. The team is preparing itself for State Qualifiers at California State University, Long Beach in late February and early March.
“We have good senior leadership and a lot of new faces. The state championships are in San Jose in April, and I think we are going to have two or three qualifiers,” said Alexander.
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