At the Screaming Eagles Invitational tournament hosted by Gabrielino High School, Arcadia High School’s (AHS) Speech and Debate team went toe-to-toe with dozens of other competitors from schools across Southern California in multiple individual speech categories. 

“It was pretty fun, not gonna lie. This was our first real professional tournament of the season, and I learned a lot about individual events,” commented sophomore Terrence Wu when asked about his opinion on the invitational.

Wu competed in Humorous Interpretation (HI), where the speaker’s goal is to deliver a fully-memorized ten minute comedic speech to an audience. With 2023 being his first year on the Speech and Debate team, Wu placed 8th in Novice HI and saw much potential for improvement.

Wu explained, “I was nervous going into it, but I do think I was able to build my confidence and make my performance a lot more natural. I was kind of disappointed I didn’t make it to finals, but I was still barely able to, so I am pretty satisfied with my placing.”

Because of HI’s nature in requiring the speaker to act out dramatic scenes or crack jokes amusing enough to make the audience laugh, it can often be a daunting task to harness the courage needed for an effective presentation. 

Another competitor, freshman Collin Gee, also noted the more serious atmosphere of the event and stated, “It was a lot more formal and competitive than my first tournament, Package Deal, but I still found it enjoyable.”

Unlike Wu, Gee competed in Novice Impromptu, where the speaker must prepare a 5 minute speech using only 5 minutes, a task which needs a quick mind and outstanding fluency skills to execute well. However, Gee was able to perform sufficiently throughout his rounds, especially for a novice speech and debate competitor.

“My performance was decent, definitely better than expected because I placed second in one of my rounds,” said Gee after reflecting on his performance during the tournament. “It was a good opportunity to practice my impromptu skills. I also learned a lot by being able to listen to other people’s speeches.”

AHS took home a major win after sophomore Max Choi was able to outperform other more experienced participants and ranked 1st in Varsity Impromptu, a category very similar to its aforementioned Novice event where the speaker is given five minutes to prepare a five minute speech about a randomly selected topic.

Overall, the tournament opened up AHS’ Speech and Debate team to the beginning of the competitive season, and allowed many participants to refresh their skills in multiple individual events, as well as observe the abilities of their competitors to further cultivate their own.

Photo courtesy of AHS Speech and Debate