Revere’s Speech and Debate team sent multiple students to states and one to nationals after a long season of hard work and dedication.

Revere’s Speech and Debate team started practicing in late October and has competed almost every Saturday until early February. The team, coached by John Kerezy, is thrilled with the season his students have had. Kerezy is in his fifth year of coaching the team and also teaches journalism at Cuyahoga Community College.

This year, Revere earned nineteen “bids” or pre qualifying slots. Kerezy stated what he thought was the team’s biggest accomplishment of the season.

“Only one public high school in the whole state had the maximum number of Public Forum and Lincoln Douglas debaters, four of each, qualify for states. Revere is the one. [I am] very thrilled at how much we have improved. Three years ago, Revere took only three students to state championships. This year we will take 20,” Kerezy said.

Sophomore Julia Scott competes in Lincoln Douglas Debate, or LD, debating the moral obligations of the government while using both philosophy and evidence to support her arguments. This is her second year competing with LD and explained why she decided to join her freshman year.

“I joined debate because I always liked to argue, and I seemed to be fairly good at it. Last year, I qualified for states as a freshman. I also placed second at the state novice tournament,” Scott said.

Scott qualified for states through the “Bigs” tournament, national qualifiers, on February 17. The event took place at Perry High School, and the top 3 of 38 Lincoln Douglas debaters qualified for nationals. Scott commented on the chance she had at qualifying.

“I went into the tournament thinking that I had a very small chance of qualifying, since I am only a sophomore. As the day went on, I kept winning my rounds, and I began to believe that I could actually qualify,” Scott said.

Scott made it to the top four debaters and lost in the first round to the debater who ended up winning the tournament. The next round Scott debated for either third or fourth place, and this round had three judges and around thirty observers. Scott explained how she received her place at nationals.

“This round I won, and after nine rounds total, I was awarded third place and a ticket to nationals,” Scott said.

Sophomore Ben Hunt is also heading to states with Scott. Hunt, in his second year of Public Forum, believes participating in Speech and Debate has helped him socially and academically.

“I have gotten to know some people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise, so it helps socially. I have learned a lot about the most random topics, so it has helped me academically too,” Hunt said.

Junior Szofia Wiksell, a second year member also in Public Forum, faced difficulty this season when her partner could not come to tournaments due to sickness. However, Nolan Moore took her partner’s place, allowing the duo to compete. She stated how she felt when she learned of her partner’s illness.

“I hoped for the best and when my partner couldn’t make it, I decided to take another member of the team for both of our benefits,” Wiksell said.  

Revere High School Speech and Debate students live by the motto “proper practice and preparation promotes perfect performance” as they prepare for the end of the season. States took place on March 2 and 3 in Sylvania near Toledo, and nationals will occur in June in Florida.