On April 29-30, the Speech and Debate Team competed in the State Championship, which took place at Arcadia High School. The dTHS team was represented by 11th graders Jonathan Silver and Ryan Ofman. This was their second consecutive year competing at the state tournament, making them the first students in de Toledo history to go to back-to-back state competitions.

In the speech portion of the competition, the team, led by Mr. Chang and Mr. Hirsch, did not do as well as they had hoped. Jonathan and Ryan, both returning in their respective events (Jonathan in Original Advocacy and Ryan in Impromptu), made it through the preliminary rounds, ultimately losing on a tie-breaker. In order to move on to the next round, students must place in the top 18, whereas Ryan placed 20th and Jonathan placed 19th.

“In the debate portion of the competition,” said Mr. Chang, “the dTHS team did extremely well.”

Ryan placed in the top 19 overall in the debate competition, which is called the “Octafinals.” In this portion of the tournament, the students continue competing until they are knocked out. Making the top 19 is a big accomplishment, and Ryan surpassed last year’s results.

In the Impromptu speech part of the competition, Ryan was given two minutes to prepare a five minute speech, based on a list of three topics that he was given. These topics range from abstract nouns, such as happiness or joy, to concrete nouns such as poster or book, and can also include famous quotations that each student must provide an interpretation of.

Ryan also competed in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, where he argued whether the United States ought to guarantee the right to housing. Ryan defended both sides of the topic, providing evidence for why housing should or should not be considered a legal right for all American citizens.

Jonathan competed in Original Advocacy. Prior to the competition, he wrote and memorized a 10-minute speech that confronts an issue that needs a legislative solution. In his speech, Jonathan discussed how women who are raped often are forced to share the parental rights of their child with their rapists. Jonathan proposed that the U.S. Congress take steps to deprive rapists of all parental rights.
The dTHS community celebrates this competition as the first time in its history that students have returned to the State Championship and as another strong showing for the speech and debate team. The team now turns its attention to preparing seniors Roni Farkash and Laura Lavender for the national speech and debate tournament in mid-June.