Reseda : School Advances in Speech Tourney

Relying on diction, enunciation and the ability to think on their feet, students from Cleveland High School garnered an unprecedented 27 of 39 berths at last weekend’s qualifying tournament for the California State Speech Championships.

The Cleveland students proved their mettle by debating students from across the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys in categories ranging from drama and humor to policy debate and original oratory.

Students from Monroe, Taft, Saugus and Notre Dame highs, Harvard-Westlake and the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies took the remaining 12 spots for the state tourney, which will be held in May at Santa Clara University.

On Friday and Saturday, the Cleveland students will battle at Torrance’s Bishop Montgomery High School in the qualifying tourney for the National Forensic League Championships in June.

Last year, Cleveland students took all six Central/Southern California spots for the nationals. The state championship is independent of the qualifying event for the nationals, said Sarah Rosenberg, the school’s speech and debate coach. With all the debating and preparing, getting to the nationals is “a long and arduous process,” she said.

And the Cleveland secret?

“We have a cross-age, cross-cultural group of students dedicated to working together,” Rosenberg said. “They don’t see [forensics] so much as competition as enriching their lives.”