Saddleback Debate Team U.S. Champs
The Saddleback Community College District team has won the National Speech and Debate Championships for Community Colleges.
Fourteen students from the district’s two colleges, Irvine Valley and Saddleback, competed in an array of individual and team categories such as impromptu speaking, poetry, readers’ theater and a sweepstakes event, said George McCrory, Irvine Valley College spokesman.
“The kids can’t believe it,” Irvine Valley speech instructor Craig Grossman said from St. Paul, Minn., where the six-day competition ended Friday. “Some of them are even pinching themselves.”
The competition drew 400 students from 73 colleges across the country. Second place went to Southeast Illinois College, and Moorpark College in southern Ventura County placed third.
Saddleback Community College District students also swept top awards in 1982 and 1988.
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