The Student News Site of Buffalo High School

Bison Beat Online

The Student News Site of Buffalo High School

Bison Beat Online

The Student News Site of Buffalo High School

Bison Beat Online

Speech students compete at NSDA

Speech+students+compete+at+NSDA

Last week, the speech and debate team traveled to Temple to compete at the annual National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) district tournament. It was held at Holy Trinity Catholic School. The students competed in hopes of earning a qualifying spot to go to Nationals, which will be held in Fort Lauder dale, Florida, in June.

The speech team has been participating in this organization for four years. With every tournament the team competes at, each individual student earns points according to how well they do. The more points a student has, the more degrees he or she earns. The more degrees the team earns, the more entries they receive at the district meet. Four years ago, the BHS team had only three entries. This year, they had 21.

Students earning at least 750 points can be nominated for Academic All American. To earn this distinction, the student also has to be at least halfway through their junior year and must have a high GPA.

“When my coaches told me I had got to All American level, I was shocked,” senior Lilah Molina said. “I’d been working so hard for it for four years. All my work had finally meant something.”

NSDA has a number of different events competitors can compete in. There are interpretation events which include; POI, DUO, HI, DI, Informative and OO. The speech events include; Congress (Senate and House), International Extemporaneous Speaking and Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking. The debate events include; Big Question, Cross Examination, Lincoln Douglas and Public Forum.

“It was my first year to participate in OO,” junior Andrea Garcia said. “It was something I’d never done before but turns out, it was right up my ally. I’ll definitely be doing it next year.”

Junior Noah Rubel and Senior Kaiden Loep competed in Public Forum debate. PF debate is set up much different than a normal CX round. Speeches are shorter and the affirmative team doesn’t necessarily have to speak first. Rubel and Loep made it to semi-finals.

“Honestly, I’m really impressed with how far we made it,” Rubel said. “It was our first year and we had four successful rounds, I’m happy.”

Rubel and Loep weren’t the only two to compete in a new event for them. Senior Nadia Garcia participated in OO for the first time. Original Oratory is where students pick any topic and make a 10 minute speech. It can be persuasive or informative.

“I gave a speech about soul mates,” Garcia said. “I picked that topic because there is so much information on it and I am really passionate about it.”

Many members of the team got close to qualifying for Nationals, but did not quite make it. Juniors Sheri Donaldson and Tana Cleveland placed third alternate in DUO. Sophomore Colby Menefee placed first alternate in Informative Speaking. Rubel placed third alternate in Domestic Extemp. Speaking. Molina placed first alternate in Lincoln Douglas Debate. Garcia went to semi-finals in international debate.

“Even though no one actually qualified for Nationals, I’m confident we will next year,” Donaldson said. “We are more determined than ever and know what he have to do.”

More to Discover