Their Skill Is Beyond Debate

Arguably, 14 college students who spend their spring break in a classroom are off their rockers.

Perhaps. But not when they’re members of one of the nation’s most formidable speech and debate teams.

Orange Coast College’s team, which took top honors in a statewide competition last month, will wrangle with 80 schools for a national title this week at the National Community College Speech and Debate Tournament in Chicago. In anxious preparation for the contest, the team devoted its spring vacation to studying current events, honing 10-minute orations and enlivening literary interpretations. “It’s all a matter of peaking at the right time,” said professor and team supervisor Norm Fricker, who participated in his first national speech competition as an OCC student 25 years ago. “We hope this is our year.”

If their track record is any indication, it very well could be a championship year for the OCC Pirates. In the past three decades, the team has compiled the nation’s best record in the tournament, receiving five national titles, six second-place and three third-place finishes.

To capture another title, the team must dethrone perennial powerhouse and defending champion College of DuPage, which is hosting the tournament. Boosting the Orange County team’s competitive drive is the revenge factor. In 1991, it lost its national title to DuPage in Costa Mesa.

“They spoiled our party,” said Fricker, who has coached the team for 10 years. “It would be nice to pull the same trick on them in their backyard.”

Without home-court advantage, Fricker and professor Georgie Monihan, the team’s other coach, directed their charges to hide their California dress, mannerisms and speech patterns. Team members packed conservative blue and gray clothes for the tournament, and, hopefully, left their distinctive slang at home.

“If you get into a Valley girl, up-talking mode, you get nailed as someone from the West Coast,” said Fricker. “They want everyone to be universal.”

The 14-event competition is conducted much like track competition at the Olympic Games. Students, who must participate in four different events, can qualify for gold, silver and bronze medals by posting big scores in the early rounds.

Events span three major categories that test a student’s knowledge, persuasive powers and grace under pressure. Some students must compose a coherent, five-minute speech often based on a famous quotation with just two minutes of preparation. Others must convincingly perform 10-minute dramatic scenes or readings.

The key to victory is not necessarily to win every event, but to advance, or “break,” speakers into the higher rounds. Usually, the school that breaks the most speakers into the second round wins, since that is where the bulk of points are awarded.

“If this were a football game, your strategy would be to score as many touchdowns as possible in the first quarter,” Fricker said. “Those TDs have a residual effect during the later three quarters. If you’re shut out early, you don’t have a prayer later.”

Because there are so many contestants and so little room, early rounds are held in individual hotel rooms. In addition to limited space, speakers must perform just a few feet from one judge, up to six other competitors and any guests who can squeeze into the room.

Sometimes, the cramped quarters and the intensity can get the best of some participants.

“Oh, they will glare at you during your speech, trying to mess you up,” said April Cubbage, 19, in her first year on the team. “It can get pretty bad.”

The weeklong contest can be grueling. It’s not unusual for a student to compete for seven or eight hours during a 12- to 14-hour day.

“It’s like a sport,” said Costa Mesa resident Nina Reich, 26, who participated in the national tournament two years ago. “My friends don’t understand it, but it’s completely physically exhausting.”

To work on their competitive stamina, OCC’s team staged mock presentations before the critical eye of their coaches last week. Kelly Bach delivered her presentation on subliminal computer messages for over the 300th time.

“I have woken up from a dead sleep at 2 or 3 in the morning and started giving this speech,” said Bach, 29, from Fountain Valley.

At the end of her fluid 10-minute speech, the coaches chimed in.

“You seemed like you were pushing the enthusiasm,” Fricker said.

“I wanted you to breathe,” Monihan added.

“We nit-pick,” Monihan joked.

Whatever the outcome in Chicago, the students derive the lifelong benefit of self-confidence, the coaches say.

“When I first started, I was so nervous that I could barely talk,” Cubbage said. “Now, I’m not afraid.”