On October 26th, the novice speech & debate group had their first competitive meet against contenders of similar skills.
In this activity, people are split into smaller groups; the last group is called the novice group. The novice group is not just one of the groups but keeps the activity filled with new and inexperienced individuals. “At first it was really hard to do and I wasn’t having that much fun, but after I went to my first tournament I had a blast and I’m having so much fun now,” said speech & debate member McKenna Bradley.
All groups have various events they can participate in, ranging from public speaking events to debates and acting events, giving them a great deal of freedom and flexibility. Since they are rather new, the novice group is sometimes helped by more experienced people from other groups and even have practice events to help along the way.“I did not expect that there was gonna be so many opportunities on the team,” said Madison Whitaker, a speech and debate member.
Since they are fairly new, more experienced people from other groups sometimes help the novice group, and they even participate in practice events to improve their performance along the way. “However they usually start that with easier events like Improv 2 or Creative storytelling,” said speech & debate coach Danielle Lopez.
Sometimes, being new to an activity can be quite terrifying. But overcoming and succeeding is more thrilling than standing to the side watching it all go by. It’s just like making food from a recipe you’ve never tried. “Nacho, so I love Mexican food and I love the team, and there is just a big variety of things going on, and if you trip and fall and it goes everywhere it’s a big mess and that’s what it feels like at practice,” said speech & debate coach Danielle Lopez.
