Competing against colleges like The University of California, L.A., Arizona State University, and CSU Long Beach, the forensics team finished No. 1 in the California Double-Up Tournament that began Oct. 16 at Concordia University, Mark Urista, assistant coach said.
“This is the best our forensics team has ever done at this tournament,” Urista said. “We kicked the bar up a couple of notches.”
The team won four gold and bronze trophies in novice debate. The team also won a gold trophy and a silver trophy in open debate. The two students also picked up four debate awards, two silver, one gold and one bronze.
The stars of the tournament turned out to be two second year team members, Robert Maxwell, and Stirling McKenzie.
“We nicknamed (Maxwell and McKenzie) ‘Team Charisma,'” Diana Crossman, assistant coach said. “They were the stars of the tournament. Colleges like San Diego State, Pepperdine, University of the Pacific and more are battling it out for these guys.”
“This is one of the most brutal tournaments,” Maxwell, 21, a political science major, said. “We won like 26 percent of all the awards there,” Maxwell said. “Usually they have a No. 1 for both junior colleges and four-year colleges, but we were so good, they made us No. 1 overall.”
Maxwell was a first-day quarterfinalist in one competition and made the semifinal round of the Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
Winners of the competitions are judged and evaluated by a group of professors and instructors from the competing schools, Urista said.
“One of the best moments was when handing out the awards for extemporaneous speaking, eight students were on stage, and seven of them were from EC,” Urista said.
“It didn’t really hit me until just today (Monday),” he said.
McKenzie, 20, is still deciding between majors, and will also be deciding between colleges.
“Pepperdine, University of the Pacific and Northern Arizona have all been colleges that are offering me scholarships to go there,” he said.
“In a single elimination competition, we were essentially the only junior college in the elimination stages of the competition,” McKenzie said.
McKenzie said he was in a duo competition with his partner Whitney Gamble, which is an acting competition.
They were a finalist and the highest rated team among the other schools.
The forensics team competed against 37 colleges, both community colleges and universities.
“It’s all thanks to the coaches, they are all amazing debaters and coaches,” McKenzie said. “We as second-years try encouraging novices as much as we can to get them involved, and the coaches do too.”
There are a total of 12 novices in the forensics team.
There were many big moments for the team, including defeating Pepperdine in a quarterfinal competition with the duo of McKenzie and Maxwell.
The pair developed a strong reputation as one of the very best in the tournament.
The forensics team will look to continue its success with its next tournament at Pasadena.