ECHS Speech and Debate Team Finishes Strong at Santa Clara

The future looks very bright for El Cerrito High School’s Speech and Debate team after several younger members had strong showings at the Dempsey Cronin Invitational at Santa Clara University. Sophomores Connor Robertson and Issac Sloan took second place in the novice Policy competition, and sophomore Eli Holmquist finished second in novice Humorous Interpretation. In the open (varsity) Lincoln Douglas debates, sophomore Eleanor Maoz placed third out of 98 competitors.

Twenty-two ECHS students competed in seven disciplines ranging from the classic Lincoln Douglas format, in which two debaters face off on a specific topic, to Original Poetry and Prose, in which each student performs a dramatic work they’ve written themselves.

“This is our first dip in the waters,” said senior Speech captain Hummd Alikhan. “It’s a testing ground.” Santa Clara is the second tournament of the year for both debaters and speech competitors, and the first tournament that includes teams from all over the state.

The team is comprised of two distinct groups. The Debate Team practices the argumentative arts, verbally thrusting and parrying against opponents bent on their intellectual destruction. All debate events set one person or team against another. In the Lincoln Douglas format debaters learn all they can about a set topic (last weekend the topic concerned whether adolescents should have the autonomy to make their own medical decisions), and then must make both the pro and con cases through the course of several rounds. The list of competitors is winnowed until just two remain in the finals. Debaters are fierce and fact-oriented, and are primed to pounce when they sense an opponent’s weakness.

In contrast, the Speech Team focusses more on the dramatic arts. Some speech formats revolve around current events, such as Extemporaneous, in which participants have 30 minutes to research a question before making a compelling seven-minute speech with as much authority as they can muster. But many events emphasize writing and performance. Senior team president Gabi Meacham was a finalist in Dramatic Interpretation with her ten-minute reworking of the Julie Taymor play “Grounded,” about an Army drone pilot who fights a distant war by day and must go home to care for her young family at night.

“Speech competitors are really, really nice people,” said sophomore Lindsay Lam. “They’re always willing to help each other. Even when I had a terrible round the other competitors offered suggestions for improving my piece.”

Students had to tap all their reserve energy through a grueling three-day schedule that, for some, ran from 6 am to 11 pm. “Eat enough food, and get hyped before each event,” said Felix Yu, a freshman who crisscrossed the campus nine times to compete as a novice in both Lincoln Douglas and Impromptu.

New students use these early events to explore different disciplines. “I tried Impromptu for the first time,” said novice debater Charlotte Waterson. “It didn’t go well.” Waterson, a freshman, shouldn’t feel bad; Impromptu requires students to speak for five minutes on a random topic for which they’ve had two minutes to prepare.

The Speech Team will be tested by Golden Gate Speech Association league rivals in the Sonoma Valley tournament this weekend. The Debate Team next travels to Monte Vista on December 12. The bigger tournaments start early in 2016, culminating in a national ‘Tournament of Champions’ in late Spring. Last year, ECHS had four competitors in the final elimination rounds of the Tournament of Champions; this year they’re aiming even higher.

For more info on the ECHS Speech and Debate program, go to echsspeechanddebate.org.