According to senior Alexis Espinal, Speech and Debate is an inspiring experience. Espinal, a member of Revere High School’s Speech and Debate team for two years, recalled a speech and debate camp she attended last summer. She listened to a speech given by another student at the camp. The student delivered the speech so well that it brought tears to the eyes of everyone in the room. Experiences similar to this are what make speech and debate such a meaningful activity to Espinal as well as many other students.

Espinal and many other RHS students improved their speech and debate skills at various camps over the summer. Espinal, along with five other RHS students, attended the North Coast District National Speech and Debate Association Camp located at Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights. Senior James White and Freshman Leah Espinal attended a week-long advanced public forum debate camp at University School in Cleveland. The students attended these camps at the recommendation of their coach, John Kerezy, hoping to hone their skills for the upcoming season.

Espinal explained that she attended the camp to improve her speech skills and get a head start on the season. Espinal noted that starting to prepare for the season early can give one an advantage over one’s opponents.

“Most people start their speeches and their cases when the season starts. When one is doing it in advance then he or she can have it down before everyone else,” Espinal said.

The students who attended the camp at Hathaway Brown spent their time on different topics based on their individual events. Espinal competes in Original Oratory, in which students write and deliver their original speeches. Espinal was able to write her speech and received critique from many coaches. Espinal spoke of the experienced coaches who ran the camp, and the help they gave her.

“My favorite part of the entire camp was seeing all the best speech and debate coaches from all over the state show up to the camp to critique me . . . . I have a feeling that this has given me a really good advantage over my competitors this season,” Espinal said.

White, a four year member and captain of RHS’s Speech and Debate team, attended his camp to become a stonger team leader. White explained that he solidified his knowledge of speech and debate at the camp.

“I was mostly self-taught in debate . . . so it really helped me [to organize] what I already knew,” White said.

The University School camp focused on public forum debate, an event in which teams of two students debate current event topics with groups from other schools. White explained that each day of the camp was dedicated to a different part of public forum debate. The camp concluded with a two day long tournament, in which camp members debated each other, putting their new skills to use.

White explained that many of the coaches were high national competitors that were able to provide advice to the camp’s attendees.

“[The coaches] were working hands-on with everybody, and they were judging the practice round, [which] was really useful,” said White.

Kerezy helped the students find the camps and helped to coach at the North Coast District Camp. Under Kerezy’s leadership, the team has grown significantly in size over the past year.

“[The team is growing because of] good students who see the benefits of speech and debate are telling other students about it,” Kerezy said.

The team begins competition on November 1st and will compete every Saturday. The team competes against Wadsworth on November 8th.