Speech & Debate team reaching for new heights

Speech+%26+Debate+team+reaching+for+new+heights

Story by Minami Guido, Staff Writer

“No matter what your passion is in life, you will use the skills you learn in speech and debate,” says Dr. Pacili.

Since Dr. Pacili has taken over the Speech and Debate classes at Boca High, it has grown from thirty students and ten competitors being thirtieth in the district to now over eighty competitors that are second in the district. Boca High had never before competed nationally, and only competed on local tournaments. Now they are ranked second in the nation. Before that, the highest rank Boca High had in Speech and Debate was third in the country in 2011, led by Alex Pollock and Patty Publowska.

When Dr. Pacili first started, the Speech and Debate team had never gone to the Florida Blue Key tournament held at the University of Florida. The first year she went she took eight students in 2011. This year she is taking a full charter bus of students, “it has grown exponentially.”

So far this year, the team has gone to Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where the public forum team went al the way to the finals. Also, for the first time ever the team went to Yale, and has earned three tournament of champion bids. The team is excited to go to the Cypress Bay Invitational, the New York City Invitational, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and Emory University later in the year.

Dr. Pacili loves that “the students get exposed to all these major college campuses and to the best debaters in the nation.” She continues to say that the goal of the team is to win their district, because the district is a very competitive one. They are currently number two in the district behind Wellington High School. Boca High has overcome third in the district by passing Suncoast High School.

“A tournament of champions is exactly what it sounds like, a tournament of the best of the best,” explains Dr. Pacili. The Tournament of Champions is held in April and is by invite only.

The best teams in the United States out of the 76,000 schools in the National Speech and Debate Association compete there. Students are working from the time they get to a tournament until the time they leave, and are constantly practicing and refining their things. Dr. Pacili instills in her students her philosophy that, “you win at practice, and you win in your preparation.”

At Wake Forest University there was a total of 210 public forum debate teams, which is 420 individual competitors. A public forum debate is two on two. Two teams from Boca High went, Avi Dahan and Maddy Moreno, and Joshua Schulster and Jacob Greene. Joshua Lee also went to Wake Forest, and competed in congressional debate. Joshua Schulster and Jacob Greene were the team that went to the finals in public forum debate.

When the team went to Yale University, Jacob Kosowsky and Miles DeAngelo went for congressional debate. Mile DeAngelo ended up going to the semi-finals. Congressional debate is a very competitive and difficult event, with seven hours or preliminary rounds at Yale.

There are a few different events that the Boca High team partakes in at tournaments. Congressional debate is one, and is all about bills and resolutions. Lincoln Douglas debate is a one on one debate focusing on moral and ethical issues. Public forum debates about in depth new topics with duo teams against each other. Extemporaneous debate events could be domestic or international news where students have thirty minutes to prepare a seven minute memorized speech. Speech events are dramatic, humorous, duo interpretations with an original oratory speech that is memorized in ten minutes. Poetry and prose are also an oratorical interpretation.

The rankings change weekly because not every school attends every tournament. The ranks are based on a point system. The more events a team does the more chances they have for getting more points.

Along with tournaments, many students go to Youth Court to get points that count toward Mock Trial. Youth Court is every Thursday the the Delray Beach Courthouse, and “is a great, real world place to practice speech skills” says Dr. Pacili.

The Speech and Debate team are like brothers in sisters in the fact that the varsity members help the novice members. Dr. Pacili says that “when you compete you are an individual, but as an individual from Boca High you are also a Bobcat and that means we celebrate everyone’s successes.”

As a Bobcat, if you want to improve you speech and debate skills but are not in Dr. Pacili’s class, she encourages students to come to her National Speech and Debate Honor Society Club every first and third Wednesday of the month.

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