After coming away from a tournament at Pasadena City College last weekend with gold medals in parliamentary debate and numerous other awards, EC forensics remains a force to be reckoned with.
Lilian Cavalieri, team president, placed fourth in overall speaker awards in the open division, while novice debater David Saulet, 18, placed third in overall speaker awards in the novice division.
Joseph Evans, team vice-president, Katelyn Curran, 20, junior debater and Cavalieri were all finalists in impromptu speaking in the open division. Robert Maxwell, 20, first-year debater and junior debater was a finalist in open division impromptu speaking as well.
Speaker awards are based on the ranking,30 being the highest, one receives from the judges after speaking, Cavalieri said.
“This weekend, I was moved up to open division,” Maxwell said. “I was the only new person to move up and break into open division. The fact that I did break is an accomplishment.”
In order to break into competitions, one must place among the top fifteen in a given area of debate, whether it be parliamentary debate, which consists of two-person teams, or impromptu or extemporaneous speaking, which entails an individual, his or her delivery supported by factual evidence.
“(Debate) is great and definitely has increased my intelligence 40 points alone by being on the team, being around (my teammates,)” Maxwell said.
Along with these triumphs, every novice debater successfully moved up to the junior division.
“Hopefully we do good in the junior division, and even if we don’t do good, we’re going to learn a lot,” Saulet said.
Saulet and his partner Shohe (last name) won a gold medal in the novice division, they will both compete in the junior division at the Grossmont invitational Nov. 15-16.
“I think we have a lot of good people this year, we have an interesting dynamic and it’s a lot more eccentric this year-in a good way,” Cavalieri said. “Before every tournament we would always prepare in a printing party, which is where we would go over debate theory, printing articles for extemporaneous speaking.and everyone gave their fair share of input, and it just really showed that this year it’s not everyone out for themselves, it’s everyone working together in unison for the team.”
In order to accumulate knowledge of current events and knowledge of debate theory and philosophy, team members avidly pore through newspapers and online publications to keep on the cutting edge of contemporary information-thus maintaining their status as one of the top-ranked debate teams in the circuit of forensics.
Without proper education of international relations, governmental policies and national security, these debaters would be lacking immensely in what it takes to succeed; education on any and everything.
“Overall, I think it was a good experience and we’re looking forward to Grossmont,” Maria Bastasch, (AGE) open division debater said. “I love all of the people who have come on the team this year, they are all super-smart and really good kids; not only intelligent but of high moral character.”
Bastasch and her partner Katelyn Curran, 20, placed third in the open division.
Constant surveillance over current events, debate theory and philosophy, and continued team-work, may yield forensics more positive at their up-coming tournaments.
“We know what we need to work on now,” Saulet said. “We’re going to use our practice dates to work on (improving.)”
