Almost halfway through the season, Atherton’s speech and debate club attended an invitational tournament at Trinity high school this past Saturday, January 17th.

Andre Varner, (12), has been in the club since his junior year. He competed in POI (Program Oral Interpretation) where he talked about transgender people, pulling from sources such as political statements, personal anecdotes, poetry, etc. He also competed in poetry in which he discussed the black experience. For this, he used poetry from Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Margaret Walker, Sonia Sanchez, Robert Hayden and KIRBY, a musician.

“Every tournament has been a good experience; there’s always a level of stress but I’ve never regretted a tournament. It’s important to pick an event and piece you enjoy performing to get the most out of it,” said Varner.

Cyrus Richardson, (12), has been doing speech and debate for two years. This past tournament, they competed in storytelling, performing “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse.” This is their last competition before state, and was a good chance to practice their piece to an audience, as well as hang out with the team.

“I got to hang out with my friends on our team and in storytelling. We played lots of games and yeah had a good time,” said Richardson.

The Trinity tournament was flighted, meaning that a single round was split into two: “Round A,” and “Round B.” With this, competitors are able to be judged by two different people with breaks in between. However, it causes the tournament to go on for longer, and competitions to overlap.

“I believe tournaments are important from a grander perspective for the sake of gaining experience, public speaking skills, and lessening anxiety. Joining Speech and Debate has helped me come out of my shell more than any other extracurricular,” Varner explained.

Blue Snowden was Atherton’s finalist, competing in extemp, which is where you deliver a speech on current events with limited preparation time. Congratulations to them and the rest of the team!