Walking through the hallways of EC a smiling from ear to ear and exchanging secret handshakes with friends while giggling with shyness, you wouldn’t think Richard Ewell, 22, political science and philosophy major, would be the best speech and debate on campus.  That’s because he isn’t: He’s best at speech and debate in the whole state.

“When I first started to debate, I didn’t plan on doing well, I just figured I could do something with my time,” Ewell said. “It’s a good feeling to have accomplished what I have. Debate is kind of my life now, in order to be good you need to give a lot of your outside time to be successful.”

Being a part of the forensics team at EC for two years, Ewell’s competitive style of debating has reflected onto his success.

During the competitive tournament at state, Ewell has placed gold in team debate, gold in Lincoln Douglass debate, silver in impromptu and silver in extemporaneous. Overall making him the top speaker in the state, and beating out other schools such as the University of Los Angeles and Concordia University, their biggest competition.

“Richard is one of the smartest people I know,” Shannon Merideth, 19, speech communications major, said. “He’s one of the most looked up people on the team. He doesn’t demand respect, he just receives it.”

In the fall, Ewell, a 2007 Crenshaw High School graduate, hopes to transfer to Cal State University, Long Beach, or Concordia University where he will continue his debate career.

“Richard is going to be phenomenal in the next two years,” Francesca Bishop, forensics coach, said. “He leads by example, he’s always here and prepare to do his work. He’s humble and supportive of everyone, he really is a good leader and I’m going to really miss him.”

Though the forensic team does not have a captain, many can agree that Ewell is looked up to and respected by the rest of his team.

“He is willing to work with you on whatever it may be, he’s helped the newer people on the team, like myself, in figuring out how everything works,” Meredith, said. “He’s a good leader, a good debater, and he’s a really good friend.”

Ewell comes off as shy but when debating he is far from it.  He said that when he originally joined the team last year, he barely even spoke to the rest of the team.

“He’s very quiet,” Tony Liu, 19, political science major, said. “But when he has something to say, people listen.”

Being a part of this team has not only inspired his peers to achieve greatness, but it has changed Ewell for the better.

“Being a part of this team as made me less of an introvert, it’s allowed me to be more open and I’ve made a lot of friends throughout this experience,” Ewell said.

Participating in numerous tournaments, Ewell has been able to travel to New Orleans for nationals as well as Connecticut, which is the site of the Forensic teams’ next competition in April.

Ewell said that after EC he plans on becoming a grad assistant, coaching debate teams and ultimately going into law to become a lawyer, a profession he claims his speech and debate talent will prepare him

“This has given me a new life, before debate I didn’t care about school I was just trying to figure everything out,” Ewell said. “But debate has given me the motivation to be in school and to succeed.”