With the 2021-22 season now underway, the speech and debate team is consistently victorious at tournaments. The team has placed in the top six in team sweepstakes every week. Speech coach Vince Taddei emphasized the significance of the current season. Taddei said, “This is going to be a very important season for the speech and debate team. We have two district champions returning, and a lot of accomplished speakers and debaters.” This year, there are around 30 students on the team. Taddei attributes this increase in participation to the team’s past accomplishments. “Because of their success, we also had great interest in the team during our recruiting period, so our numbers are also growing,” Taddei said. “It’s really an exciting time for the program.” The speech and debate team is continuing with the traditions they practice each season. One of these is electing a president to lead the team. Senior Olivia DeCesare was selected as president this year. “The team is full of hardworking, dedicated, and talented people,” DeCesare said. “ Last year we sent four people to the National Tournament, which I can’t emphasize how incredibly impressive that is; it’s almost unheard of. We have so many people on the team ranked in the district, state, and even the nation.” DeCesare elaborated about how proud she is of the team, especially as they compete against schools with larger student populations. “Other schools like Canfield have lots of students, which makes it easy to win sweepstakes at tournaments, but even with a little over half their size, we still are able to be right up behind them taking second as a team at South Range,” DeCesare said. “I couldn’t be any more proud of everyone on the team, seriously.” With the season half over, the team is hoping to continue tradition and send multiple students to state and national tournaments. Read about the early season |