Speech and Debate Team Tops the Competition in Fall Tournaments
The Fullerton College Speech and Debate Team dominated the competition at both the Crossman Invitational at El Camino College and the Public Forum Fall Championships hosted by the University of Kentucky during the month of November.
On Nov. 6, three Fullerton College students qualified to compete at the Crossman Invitational and competed in a variety of events ranging from novice informative and persuasive speaking to varsity impromptu speaking. The tournament highlight was first-year student Rosemary Han finishing second place in novice informative speaking besting rival schools from Moorpark College and UC San Diego. Han’s speech addressed the difficult and important topic of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Then on Nov. 19, four Fullerton College students competed in the Public Forum Fall Championships. The novice public forum debate team of Trevor Grant and Yosaif Schmeidler were crowned tournament champions with wins over CSU, Southeastern Oklahoma State, Wyoming, and UC Santa Barbara. Fullerton College’s championship victory was over Vanderbilt, a private university ranked 13th in the country. Grant and Schmeidler also remained undefeated the entire tournament, which was a difficult feat.
Schmeidler was the individual novice champion, earning the first place top speaker award, while his partner Grant earned fifth place best speaker award.
“It was excellent to come to a tournament and see our improvements. We felt like we had really good positions on the topic. Winning the tournament is an amazing feeling”, said Schmeidler. The debate topic focused on Supreme Court reform following the controversial Dobbs and EPA decisions this summer.
All competitors expressed enthusiasm and excitement about attending tournaments and re-building the team after acquiring impressive wins over rival schools. The speech and debate team, which now meets in person, has seen its highest numbers of enrollment since the Spring 2020 semester with 16 active members. The team welcomes future students to enroll in COMM 138 Forensics in Spring 2023.
Competition for the team will resume Dec. 3-4 at the Fall Finale Tournament hosted by Lafayette College and the University of Nebraska. The Fullerton College Speech and Debate team is coached by Jeff Samano and Toni Nielson.
