Despite receiving a 20 percent budget cut this semester, the forensics team looks to continue its tradition of being one of the nation’s top community college programs.

“With the budget crisis, I think it is important to excel to justify the program, but that is not a problem for us,” Francesca Bishop, team adviser, said. “In my thirteen years, we have never finished lower than second in the nation,”

“I don’t believe we have had an increase in the budget since I started at EC nearly 25 years ago,”  Mark Crossman, team advisor, said.

The first competition open to students will be a warm-up taking place at EC Sept. 28 and 29.

“The vast majority of the team is new, it’s just to give them a feeling before season,” Bishop said. “It’s a low stress competition.”.

“We don’t have that many second-year members, so my goal will be to bring the squad up to speed, and be sure to establish a cohesive team that will work well together,” returning team member Jonathan Deatherage, 24, political science major, said.

While the first warm-up tournament is low stress, budget cuts will force larger team cuts earlier in debate season, Bishop said.

Bishop said the team’s “first serious tournament” called the Double Up was scheduled for Oct. 5-7 and would take place at Azusa Pacific University.

Double Up will be one of five weekend tournaments this semester where EC competes against the likes of the University of California, Los Angeles, Pepperdine, and Arizona State University, among others, Bishop said.

“We start debating as early as eight a.m., usually nine a.m., and go well into the evening. Tournament weekends are especially grueling, since each day is about twelve to fourteen hours,” Deatherage said. “Needless to say you need to stay nourished, well rested and hydrated. Your brain hurts a whole lot after a tournament.”

Despite cuts to the budget, Bishop said she is confident because of a “top-recruiting year.”

“We are going to have one of the best teams we have ever had so the only pressure this year is how to fund it all,” Bishop said.