After months of hard work and dedication, Revere junior Anthony Pignataro waited to hear if he was state championship bound for speech and debate. He had faced the biggest challenge of his career, going against a state-competition bound opponent, and refused to be denied the opportunity. He only needed one more “bid” to make it to state-wide competition. His opponent was the favorite to go to the state competition and he lost confidence that he was going to win. Then, the names of the winners were announced and Pignataro’s jaw dropped along with the rest of the crowd at the Lincoln Douglas debate at Glen Oak High School. Pignataro was announced the winner of the competition and moving to state-wide debates.

Two weekends ago, Pignataro competed in the Lincoln Douglas debate at Glen Oak High School in Canton. He was accompanied by teammates sophomore Leah Espinal, freshman Victoria Liu, sophomore Megan Warburton, and freshman Melise Williams. They competed against the Akron and Canton district high schools. Pignataro was declared the overall winner of the debate.

Pignataro talked about his high school experience with speech and debate so far.
“I have been a member for two years [and] joined my sophomore year. I wanted to expand my horizons, and I have always liked to argue and talk so I figured debate would fit perfectly with my skill set,” Pignataro said.

Speech and Debate teammate and Revere junior Nathan Albert described how Pignataro goes through his work and how he is as a teammate.

“[Pignataro has a] great work ethic and has the best self-discipline towards his work. [He] like any other guy when you first meet him. He has a great personality, and [he is] ready to help others around him,” Albert said.

Revere Speech and Debate coach John Kerezy mentioned Pignataro’s best qualities as a debater.

“Pignataro has the tenacity of a bulldog, [and he is] very intellectual. He is very quick during his arguments and always makes good points,” Kerezy said.

Kerezy described the layout of the Lincoln-Douglas debate.

“[The debate] gets its name from the 1850’s when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas [would debate], and how Lincoln won the popular vote and Douglas won the legislative vote. The topics of debate are usually dealing with people’s morals and ethics,” Kerezy said.

Speech and debate team president and Revere senior Drew Espinal described how he felt when he heard Pignataro won the Lincoln Douglas debate.

“I was not at the tournament at the time, but when I first caught wind of the news, I was absolutely overjoyed. This means so much not only to Pignataro, but to our team as a whole. It says a lot about how far we have come as an organization,” Espinal said.

Kerezy explained the atmosphere of the room when Pignataro was announced the winner.

“Pignataro and I were the only ones left. I got a chance to see the ballots before they were officially announced. I felt great for [for Pignataro] but I had to be quiet so I would not surprise him,” Kerezy said

Pignataro plans to continue with speech and debate throughout the rest of his high school career. He is going to compete in the National Tournament at Salt Lake City in June. While he does not plan on going into a career in the Speech and Debate fields, he does plan to utilize the skills that he has learned from speech and debate with a future career in business.