By Rachel Neglia
With its eighth state win in a row, the speech and debate team has had something to celebrate this semester. Months of preparation paid off, and the team has the trophy to prove it. A few weeks later, during the national qualifier tournament, there was yet another victory. Our relatively small team of about 20 people qualified two students, Lyubov Kapko and Jonathan Garza, for the national tournament in June.
The national tournament is the most prestigious speech and debate event at the high school level, and presents a culmination of the best speech and debaters in the country. It has been run annually since 1931 (except during World War II), and although some rules have changed, the events are still very similar.
This year, the national tournament will be held in Birmingham, Alabama. “The National Speech and Debate Tournament is the biggest high school academic activity in the entire world,” said Lyubov. “It makes sense since thousands of kids from around the country gather in an exotic city like Birmingham.” These select students will meet for a week to cross-examine, speak, act, and wait anxiously to find out who breaks to finals. “I expect that [nationals] will be the longest and most exciting tournament of my career,” said Jonathan.
Up until the national tournament begins in mid-June, a substantial preparation process will be held. “I expect that it will be a lot of work to be successful at this tournament,” Jonathan said. “Getting here was primarily a lot of practice.”
Lyubov and Jonathan both compete in an event called extemporaneous speaking, where they receive their topics only 30 minutes before they have to give a speech. “[We] will be a part of ‘boot camp.’” Lyubov explained. “I mean, we don’t do squats or anything, but over the course of three weeks we give about 70 speeches. That’s nearly 45 straight hours of thinking, speaking, and persuading. Every other waking moment will be spent sorting through the news.” This consuming process that most of the national qualifiers will go through will ensure that Arizona’s national team is the best that it can be.
In the end, the point of speech and debate is the experience: students gain life skills while having a lot of fun. “The main advice I have is sticking through the tough times,” said Jonathan. “There will be tournaments that you don’t do as well as you would like and tournaments where you would rather be doing something else, but you realize the reward later that makes it all worth it.”
No matter how many trophies Arizona wins at nationals, the journey to get there is what counts. “Individual success is just a byproduct of luck, experience, and hard work. It’s great, but it’s superficial,” said Lyubov. “True excellence has everything to do with patient, passionate dedication. Honestly, every accomplishment is so much sweeter when you sincerely love what you do and the people who you do it with.”
Both of TPA’s national tournament attendees have shown this dedication and enthusiasm for the activity, and so let’s wish them the best on their road to nationals!