Certificates of excellence were awarded to the forensics team during a tournament hosted on campus.

The tournament was considered a warm-up tournament, with 20 other colleges attending.

“Since it was a warm-up tournament, certificates of excellence were handed out instead of trophies,” Francesca Bishop, forensics coach, said.

During the tournaments, two people are assigned to be a team and debate against other colleges. A total of four teams from EC won certificates of excellence.

“The purpose of this was to give the team some experience. They’re doing very well,” Bishop said.

In addition to the tournament, the team’s most experienced debaters were sent to a separate tournament in Claremont.

“Being a community college, we had to send our second-year debaters to the tournament to compete against other universities,” Bishop said.

The tournament at Claremont was open division only, which is usually for experienced third and fourth-year debaters.

“We do that purposely to expose our top debaters against top competitions,” Bishop said.

Novice division is for first-year competitors, junior is for second year and open is for third-year and fourth-year competitors.

The Claremont tournaments, which the team won, 5-3, had topics ranging from international affairs to domestic issues.

“The competition was strong, one of the strongest we’ve faced, but I definitely feel like we stood our ground,” Rick Perez, team member, said.

With several returning debaters plus many new members joining the team, the goal is all about unity and cheering each other on.

“Practices are busy because we have such a large team, the largest we’ve had in awhile,” Bishop said.

During the team practices that take place in the Music Building twice a week, team members are supportive of each other, while each of them stand and practice their debating skills.

“It’s great because we have so many returning debaters that they can spread their knowledge to the new people on the team,” Perez said.

The next tournament for the team is the Cougar Classic at Azusa Pacific University next weekend..

“That’s is our major competition,” Bishop said. “At Azusa, it’s the main tournament with novice and open (division).”

The debate team is currently No. 2 out of all community colleges and No. 7 out of all the colleges and universities in the nation, according to the team’s website.

“The team is right where we want them to be,” Bishop said. “We have very high expectations for them and they’re doing very well.”