By Alex Gryciuk
Utilizing wit and public speaking skills, Speech and Debate Club is finally coming back from a full year of online tournaments. Starting with a great track record of having at least one member go to state finals or participate in the World’s team for the past six years, the team remains ecstatic to start a new year! Their goals include to compete and qualify for State this academic year in all areas of Speech and Debate, according to Head-Coach David Becker. In an effort to create an even more dominant team, Speech and Debate welcomes all students with any varying ability or skill. In fact, Becker encourages students to “to sit down with the team and learn the basics. Once you have done that you will understand that public speaking is not as frightening as people imagine.” While public speaking can be extremely frightening, he advises “to challenge that fear” because “anyone can excel in speech or debate if they believe they can.”
To represent five different branches of the club, the entire team is broken into squads to present public forum, parliamentary, Lincoln Douglas, impromptu, and speech. Leading public forum debate, Senior Bella Tucker leads team meetings. In the coming weeks, the team hopes to appoint captains for every other squad. In addition, Becker hopes to “prepare our team and our individual squads for competition at each level of speech and debate.” If interested, email dbecker@cuhsd.org with questions and visit the team website at https://www.westmontspeechanddebate.com/.