The Speech and Debate team has reworked their lettering policies and instituted a middle school program to get a head start on the new Ohio High School Speech League (OHSSL) competitions.

Head coach John Kerezy became involved with the team in October of 2013; the program had dwindled to only five members. He discussed how the team has grown and expanded in the three years since.

“Most of [us] expected the program to die out [in 2013]. We—student leaders and I both—have strived to grow our numbers and grow our events. We entered those five students in just two debate events in our first tournament in November 2013. This Saturday, we will have a total of 36 students at both the high school and the middle school competing in eight different speech and debate events at two schools. The hard work of our students, especially our student leaders, have helped make this possible. Revere is certainly on the upswing in Speech and Debate,” Kerezy said.

Three-year member Leah Espinal commented on why she loves the program.

“I just love the fact that it is such a great team, a great group of people, honestly. Because we are not just debaters all together, we are a family. We are all really close by the end of the season. Coach Kerezy is a great coach and, ultimately, the family aspect of it is just my favorite part,” Espinal said.

In previous years, the team required attendance at six or more tournaments. This year, team members must attend two-thirds of the tournaments to receive an academic letter. Kerezy explained the reasons behind this change.

“We take improvement in speaking and debating skills seriously. Research shows that students who participate regularly in [tournaments] earn higher GPAs than the general student population. So the academic “R” letter is earned—not given—by students who make that commitment to grow, speak and debate better by representing Revere at eight tournaments,” Kerezy said.

The team also decided to extend their program to include middle schoolers this year. Kerezy described the progress of the group so far and the differences between middle school and high school Speech and Debate.

“We have had three practices at the middle school and twelve middle school students [competed] at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School . . . . Middle school students are not as advanced yet academically, but they can grasp the fundamentals of speech and debate events and learn details about events sooner. We have had about 35 middle school students go to RHS summer camps which we have hosted over the past two summers as well,” Kerezy said.

Two-year team member Emily Albert added her hope for the future of the program.

“They are doing really well and it is great to know that they are going to come up to the high school and that we will have them as part of this program,” Albert said.

The high school team will continue its season at North Canton Hoover High School on January 7.