By Sarah Faulkner and Erin Guiney
You may have often wondered what Speech and Debate is about. You may know that there is a lot of work involved, but may not know that so much is gained from the experience.
The Speech and Debate website explains that Speech events involve more acting, while the Debate events are more political and research-based. Rachel Neglia, one of the team captains, explained, “There are four debate events and eleven speech events; any student would be able to find an event they enjoy.” A former Speech and Debate competitor said that they “enjoyed Speech the most. Speech required more acting than Debate.”
We asked both what they learned that they used in everyday life, and Rachel replied, “Apart from the obvious benefits to argumentation and rhetoric that this activity affords me, I find that my confidence in everything I do is stronger. I really appreciate the academic benefits I’ve received from Speech and Debate, and I think I’ve made more friendships in this activity than I could have in any other extracurricular.”
The second student found that the club greatly helped with her presentational skills and with her acting. Both students agreed that Speech and Debate is important “because communication is important,” and that learning how to communicate properly is vital.
Lindsay Newfield commented, “I love attending tournaments and getting to meet really amazing people from across the state. I compete mainly in debate, so I love arguing with people, and getting that experience in a competitive setting is really fun. Especially at TPA, we have a really amazing team and a lot of people who will support you along the way and help you feel at home.”
This year the Tempe Prep Speech and Debate team has 25 members, many of them freshmen. At Red Mountain, the first tournament of the season, the team did extremely well, with 6 of the 7 debaters and debate teams making it to at least the next round of competition. One freshman in particular, Lindsay, won her debate event!
Tempe Prep also did well on Oct. 18, with 3 people making it to semifinals or finals in their Speech events multiple times. Tempe Prep managed to get fifth place out of more than 20 schools with only 10 people attending the tournament, and it looks like the 2014-15 season will be a successful one.