RESEDA : Cleveland High Team Wins Debate Contest

The speech team at Cleveland High School swept the National Forensic League’s district-level tournament this weekend, which will qualify the members for the national speech and debate competition in June in Daytona, Fla.

The two-day event, which took place at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, drew competitors from across Southern California.

Cleveland High speakers qualified for each slot in the individual speech categories: Original Oratory, Humorous Interpretation and Dramatic Interpretation.

The district-level competition qualifies two students per category.

The Cleveland winners were Andrea Collins, 17, who will compete in both Humorous Interpretation and Original Oratory.

Andrea performed a section of “El Grande Coca Cola,” in Spanish for Humorous Interpretation and recited a speech she wrote about immigrant rights for her Original Oratory.

Alan Loayza, 17, qualified in Humorous Interpretation by doing a scene from “Eating Raoul” in which he portrayed 20 characters.

Meranda Walden and Zina Zaflow, both 17, will compete in the Dramatic Interpretation category. Meranda’s speech came from a play called “From the Memoirs of Pontius Pilate,” and Zina performed a scene from “The Toyer,” about a serial killer who stalks women.

Sean Henry, 16, qualified for Original Oratory with his speech on gay rights.

In another category--two-person debating--Harvard-Westlake and Taft high schools both qualified their teams at the tournament.