Wandering the halls in their Sunday-go-to-church clothes murmuring speeches to themselves is what East Speech and Debate does almost every weekend. As the national competition crawls closer and closer, the wandering students feel the pressure.

But before nationals comes the state competition. Here, during early March, the East team took home the gold.

However, in order to prepare for any competition, the debate kids prepare completely differently than the speech competitors.

“Debate kids have to find the perfect evidence and have our points made in order to rebut and have a fair debate with our opponent,” junior Jasmine Atkins explained.

On the other hand, speech kids must observe or research mannerisms and behaviors of the characters they are taking on.

“Each person prepares for different things,” said junior Morgan O’Neill. “A good character is really really good for an entire piece. If it’s not believable, then it’s really hard to do well.”

The state tournament, this year in Lander, allowed for competitors to qualify for nationals. However, some of our East students achieved this prior to State. Freshman Jayden Roccaforte and Morgan are two students to qualify.

“I wasn’t even thinking about winning or going to nationals,” Jaden said. “I was really just focused on making people laugh and having fun. When you think you’re doing your best is when you’re doing your best.”

In order to be successful, there are some qualities that will set a competitor apart from their opponents, such as passion, positivity, dedication and hard work, a knack for standing out, aggression, and having a goal. However, anyone can end up being successful in speech and debate.

“You don’t have to have a certain personality in order to be successful in debate or in speech,” Jazmine said. “You have to put your own personality, your own twist to it. Some judges may not like it, but you can’t let that get to you because you can’t change who you are. If you know you’re doing it correctly, then that’s what matters most.”

With this amazing preparation by the team, nationals will be stormed by East in Fort Lauderdale June 17-22.