Speech and Debate Takes Another Big Win at Desert Ridge HS

On Saturday, October 5, ACP’s Speech & Debate team took part in the tournament at Desert Ridge HS. They competed against 21 teams and finished victoriously in 3rd place. Congratulations Knights! Here are the following participants who won individual trophies:

Congressional Debate

3rd Place: Yibo Chen

Big Question Debate

1st place: Brooke Scott 

3rd place: Daynah Andrews

Public Forum Debate (Novice)

3rd place: Kiyan Saissan & Frederick Changho

3rd place: Blake Enwiller & Andrew Kang

Extemporaneous Speech

3rd place: Damien Rivera

Original Oratory

4th place: Maddie Rumsey 

Informative Speech

3rd place: Yoojin Hann

5th place: Sharmila Nimbkar

Duet Acting

1st place: Yoojin Han & Shannon McKenna

3rd place: Skylar Hudson & Ananya Lakhotia

Humorous Interpretation

5th place: Daniel Merritt

Poetry Interpretation

5th place: Daynah Andrews

Speech and Debate never fails to bring home multiple awards in ACP’s name. I interviewed Daynah Andrews who participated in Big Questions Debate, Poetry Interpretation, and Impromptu, to learn more about her experience.

Q: What event(s) did you participate in?

A: I participated in both the Speech and Debate events and competed in BQ Debate, Poetry Interpretation, and Impromptu. BQ (Big Questions) was the only “debate event” I participated in; I debated on whether or not objective morality exists. For Poetry Interpretation I chose to focus more on the social problems we face in society such as gender identity, racism, social class/status, and feminism. The last speech event I participated in was Impromptu; there was a total of three rounds where I talked about various topics like sports, AZ heat, and Halloween activities.

Q: Could you explain how the whole day of the competition went down?

A: The whole competition lasted two days long; We on rode a bus on Friday and it started in the afternoon at around 3:00 P.M. Students who were in debate events competed, and only if they broke (won 3/4 or 4/4 debate rounds), they were able to compete on Saturday for debates or I.E. events (Interpretation and Speech events). Everything was on time, and tournaments ended in about less than an hour. At the end they posted who broke into the finals rounds. On Saturday, people started coming through the doors at around 7:00 A.M. for speech and interpretation events; debates were later in the day. There was a slight delay during rounds, so everyone was waiting to find out who broke into finals. About 20 minutes later, after participants finished their finals round, the award ceremony started around 6 P.M and lasted till 7:30 P.M.

Q: Was it your first time competing in a Speech and Debate competition? If so, how did it go?

A: It was my first time competing in a speech and debate tournament and I thought it went very well. I realized that once you started debating, it’s like an adrenaline rush that runs through your body where you want to keep debating. It’s also just so much fun spending time with the team and talking about the weird and humorous moments we encountered in our rounds.

Q: What was your favorite moment during the entire event?

A: My favorite moment during the entire event would have to be the conversations we shared throughout the competition. We all wanted to talk about how our experiences were and how we felt when we were done competing. It was extremely interesting to hear my friends opinions during their debate rounds.

It is remarkable to see how far the Speech and Debate team has come with only being one for four years. We are always so proud of each member who spends countless of hours memorizing and practicing for multiple weeks. Good work Speech and Debate, and the best of luck to all the following competitions!