SPHS Speech and Debate competes in San Gabriel

STORY MORGAN SUN

PHOTO EMIKO (EMI) ESSMILLER

The South Pasadena High School Speech and Debate

Varsity team competed in their annual Spring Varsity competition in San Gabriel High School on Saturday, Jan. 22. 12 participants from SPHS competed individually in Congressional Debate. Each member prepared six speeches on separate bills or resolutions and debated one during their rounds, then changed to a different topic the next round.

11 of the 12 varsity members did not make it to the final round, in which finalists debated a bill to require DNA evidence for death penalty sentencing. Freshman varsity competitor Eric Shiroishi rose up in the ranks as the only varsity debater to reach the last round.

“The tournament was very long, tiring, and nerve wracking. But I enjoyed debating and giving my speeches,” Shiroishi said. “The best part is asking questions and trying to stump the people on the other side of the argument.”

The end of the tournament saw the SPHS debate team scarcely called up during the awards ceremony. The only honor for the Tigers came from novice competitor Lucia Atencio for winning an MVP reward.

But the team is not to be subdued. They are continuing to work on improving their confidence in speech delivery, and fine-tune their arguments. Counter-arguments seem to be a big focus for the next competition, which is the State Qualifiers on March 4 at Schurr High School.

“I think the tournament was a good experience for our team because it gave a lot of our novice competitors valuable experience that they can build on for State

Qualifiers next month,” English teacher and Speech and Debate advisor Chris Herrin said. “I always get a thrill when the students exit a round and can’t wait to talk about how it went or some bizarre thing that a student from another school said.”

The Speech and Debate team might have lost this competition, but the members gained knowledge of the dynamics and operation of a debate tournament. Some novice members chose to compete at the varsity level in this debate, and are hoping to return next year to lead their events for future novice competitors. Each topic that is debated stems from a real life issue in the government, and can give practice into critical thinking for future citizens that will have to learn about these topics.

“One of my favorite aspects of advising Speech and Debate is seeing young people passionately debate real-world topics,” Herrin said. “I think this is something that they rarely get to do in their other classes and I think giving students the space to think and talk about things that have a daily impact on their lives is really beneficial to them.”