Up for Debate

speech and debate sends seven students to nationals

Jamie O'Donnell, Staff

Sending Tahoma’s largest number of students to nationals, our school’s Speech and Debate team is having an unprecedented year. At the National qualifying tournament for the Western Washington district, seven students qualified to advance to the national tournament in Fort Lauderdale in Florida this June.

This year’s team is comprised of new and returning competitors. Junior Joseph Ribera has competed at Nationals for the past two years, and this year is no different as he is on of the students heading to Fort Lauderdale. Ribera is competing in Duo interpretation with his partner, Elizabeth Davis. One of their speeches touches on the topic of interracial couples and the hardships they face. Joseph describes the atmosphere at competitions as “very competitive; everyone is striving to be the top on the pool.” He then clarifies “there is still a professional aspect to it,” said Ribera.

Senior Aliya Musaliar will be attending Nationals for the first time after being part of Speech and Debate for three years. This year, Aliyah Musaliar is competing in extemporaneous speaking, which is “like a hybrid between debate and speech because on a national level it’s almost like giving an impromptu speech and then being cross examined about it,” said Musaliar. She explained the preparations and research that goes into the speeches she creates. In extemp, she chooses from a list of randomly selected questions, then has 30 minutes to find and memorize articles on the topic and create a speech. She  has seven minutes to present the speech to the judges. At the national level, the judges will follow her speech by asking her questions about it. “You gotta know your content,” said Musaliar.

Students who qualified to attend the National Speech and Debate tournament pose with their plaques.

The amount of preparation that goes into these tournaments is astounding. Oftentimes, the students may not know what topic they will be discussing at nationals, however their dedication to the event pushes them to continue learning and practicing. The students in Speech and Debate work hard in order to show their skills and knowledge. The work has paid off, and we are excited to see what the students can do at the national level.