Winning nine awards in its first competition of the year, the forensics speech and debate team is poised to carry on its tradition of success Mark Urista, assistant coach, said.
“We had our first competition, a warm-up and we won nine individual awards. I think that was the most out of all the other colleges,” Urista said.
The forensics team’s first major tourney will be tomorrow and the team expects to continue with its success.
“We have been the No. 1 or No. 2 team amongst community colleges for the last ten years,” Francesca Bishop, director of forensics, said.
The team is still in the top 10 when including universities, Bishop added.
Despite having many new members, Urista is very confident in the team.
“You just have to repeat things more than once with new members,” Urista said.
Although the team is diverse from a political standpoint, it does not stop the members from respecting each other, Urista said.
“We may all have different views on certain topics, like the war in Afghanistan, but we all learn to respect each other’s opinion,” Urista said.
“Many times in a debate you are put in a position where you have to argue for a point you may not agree with,” Urista said.
Even with its success, the economy is still affecting the team.
“There are (more than) 20 people currently on the team, we will have to cut it down because of the (budget) cuts,” Bishop said.
She added that the team might have to be down to 14 or less because usually, 12 students are picked for the international competitions.
The team meets on Mondays and Wednesdays to conduct individual speaking events, to practice and to debate. Competitions consist of three types of debates, Urista said. They are limited preparation speaking, platform speaking and oral interpretation literature.
Ashley Graham, student, is in her second year on the debate team.
“The first year, I just had to get used to everything, so now I’m more prepared to deal with it, just going to try and build off of last year,” Graham said.
Last year, Graham finished fourth in the state for extemporaneous speaking and won a bronze medal for extemporaneous impromptu speaking among other accomplishments.
“This year I have a new partner,” Graham said. She finished 2-2 in debates last year with her partner. The team is separated into smaller groups, which consist of two members.
Graham said during practice, the members usually talk about politics.
“Once we started talking about whether it’s better to be single or in a relationship, but we mostly talk about politics and world affairs,” she said.
“We finish as one of the top teams every year,” Urista said. “We should have another great year.”