The Regis Speech and Debate team is a team that gathers students from many different corners of Regis and encourages them to work together to push each other and foster a great community. The team consists of several different sections with different competition events that focus on different aspects of Speech and Debate, and the team has been able to find competitive success throughout the varsity season so far, which started in early November and ends around spring break in March.
The team attends many different tournaments at many different high schools all around Colorado throughout the season, which all leads up to the two biggest tournaments of the season in March, National Qualifiers with a chance to attend Nationals hosted by the National Speech and Debate Association in the summer, and the State Championship hosted by CHSAA.
For many students that participate in the activity, Speech and Debate is so important to them because of the people. Senior Joanne Livadariu who is currently in her third year of being on the team shares that, “My favorite thing about Speech and Debate is the community and friends I’ve made.” The community that encourages not only competitive growth, but personal growth as well along with teammates who push each other and strive to become better.
Through Speech events like Informative Speaking and Original Oratory, students get the opportunity to explain and listen to many different opinions and perspectives from many competitors from other schools on the circuit. This allows students to question their way of thinking, look deeper into issues that they would not normally think about, and take into consideration other people’s perspective of important matters in our world.
Through Debate events like Lincoln Douglas or Public Forum, students individually or on a team work effectively against another team to convince a judge that their side of a resolution or a topic is more valid. Students in debate come to thoroughly understand both sides of an issue and learn to think critically about every argument that could be made on each side. Competitors who participate in Speech and Debate learn to expand their world view, and share messages that need to be shared which will continue to happen for a long time as long as the team thrives!
