By Rachel Neglia

“It’s going to be nice to actually get more than five hours of sleep every night, now that the season’s over,” says Aimee Cheng, a freshman on TPA’s Speech and Debate team. This sentiment seems to be the consensus of the whole team, which has attended 15 tournaments over the course of the year. Despite the rigorous nature of this activity, participants found abounding achievements, and even fun, while reaping constructive rewards.

Throughout the season, the team has had much success, despite its small size. Team co-captain Enrique Favaro explains: “This year, we only had one senior but we had an influx of many talented young members. Many of these members did phenomenally in their first or second years.”

Individual successes on the novice level were incredible. Lindsay Newfeld, a freshman, won multiple tournaments in novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and describes her proudest moment to be when she “won first place in speaker awards at ASU (my first national circuit tournament) out of about 70 competitors.”

Lincoln-Douglas Debater Aimee Cheng also grew considerably in her debate skills, as well. She explains that “My proudest moment this season was breaking to octo-finals in varsity LD at the Central High School tournament since varsity Lincoln-Douglas was very different from the novice division and it was only my second varsity tournament.”

Further, Abby Everding, a sophomore, won the novice division of Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Southwest Speech and Debate Institute’s prestigious tournament in March. The Public-Forum debate team of Emma Moriarty and Denzel Rustempasic qualified to late outrounds repeatedly at important tournaments, as well, and almost qualified to nationals.

The varsity team members additionally had manifold accomplishments. Yegor Zenkov, a senior, qualified to nationals in International Extemporaneous Speaking. Junior Erin Guiney qualified to the Tournament of Champions in Congressional Debate, as did Enrique Favaro, a junior. All of us consistently made the break to outrounds in all of our events, and we all came close to qualifying to the national tournament.

With all of this success, teammates anticipate that with more practice, the team can become a powerhouse. “Next year will be different because we will be so much stronger than we were this year,” Enrique Favaro says. “Our three full-time Senior members next year (Erin Guiney, Rachel Neglia, and myself) will be a major force in every event.  Our star Public Forum debate team of Denzel Rustempasic and Emma Moriarty are looking to take on whatever competition. Our many young excellent Lincoln-Douglas debaters including Lindsay Newfeld, Aimee Cheng, and Abby Everding will again dominate Lincoln Douglas debate… our jack-of-all-trades Harish Ilango will be filling in the gaps for our weaker areas.”

Along with the team’s efficiency rate, a lot of this year’s senior competition from other teams will have graduated, leaving more room for safe victories. “Lots of good competitors will be gone; Desert Vista is losing around half of their team, as well as North Pointe and Mesquite,” Erin Guiney says. She adds that she also wants to see team members branching out into other events, especially the debate-centric novice team: “I really want all of our new debaters to try speech, and for anyone new coming in to try interpretation or platform events, or congressional debate, and to really get a feel for what the different events entail and what they like the most.”

This season, TPA’s Speech and Debate team has become extremely integrated, with upper- and under-classmen becoming not only great teammates, but also great friends. Inter-team relations have also blossomed. Erin Guiney explains that “This was the year I started making friends with people, started talking to competitors from other teams and started forming friendships during repetitive congress sessions, framework-weighed debate rounds, badly judged speech rounds, and outside of tournaments. I not only got to grow as a competitor and find success, but also see my teammates and friends from other teams succeed as well.”

Lindsay Newfeld says that “Everyone in the debate community is kind and supportive and I know that the things I am doing in speech and debate are going to help me for my entire life.”

Being a part of this activity is incredibly enriching, and I’m immensely proud of my team that I’ve shared the experience with. In the words of freshman Harish Ilango, “You readers should try Speech and Debate; although there is a lot of work, the confidence and what you gain in speaking is amazing!”