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Speech and Debate: a team effort

By Solemei Scamaroni, age 17 | August 25, 2023

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Solemei Scamaroni, Caleb Anstee, Advika Sadasivan, Tanmay Rai, Adeline Mai

SPEAK UP Solemei Scamaroni, a senior at The Village School, is beginning her last season of high school debate this year as team captain. From left: Solemei, with team members Caleb Anstee, Advika Sadasivan, Tanmay Rai, and Adeline Mai. Not pictured: Alex Illaqua.

From June 12-16, thousands of high schoolers from across the U.S. flocked to Phoenix, Arizona to compete in the largest academic competition in the world, the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) tournament. Forget the Super Bowl, this is our World Cup. Each competitor is armed with months of preparation and a dream to make the final stage. As the 2023 Tournament of Champions champion in Original Oratory, I had high hopes of making the stage. I wasn’t alone. My five brilliant teammates, each a champion in their own right, as well as our coach, Dr. Chris Medina, held the same dream. Together, we shared the hope that we could rank amongst the top schools. But making the stage, “breaking” at the tournament (top 60 out of 300), and even qualifying for the competition, is extremely rare.

Speech and Debate is inherently subjective. Judges value different arguments, performance techniques, and topics. Consistency is difficult. About 120,000 students compete, and only about 5 percent qualify for the national tournament. Of those 120,000 students, only 0.6 percent break the top 60.

Despite the odds, all six Village High School students were in the top 0.6 percent. Though none of us individually made the stage, together we had the honor of seeing our coach walk across the stage to claim our top 20 School of Excellence trophy.

As I reflect in anticipation of my final high school season, it isn’t the award I will remember, but my team. It is the love we share for each other that makes us a phenomenal team. It is the hours critiquing each other’s performances, and rooting for each other despite individual disappointments, that is the true award. It is the passion we each put in our work, whether it be advocating against the erasure of Asian-American history, pointing out the cultural plague of political denialism, or offering the gift of laughter. Yes, Speech and Debate can shape our academic careers, but more importantly, it trains us to be advocates, critical thinkers, and empathetic people. Speech and Debate gives us a voice.

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