Scarsdale Speech and Debate Team Stands Out at State Tournament

Scarsdale High School’s Speech and Debate Team, coached by Joe Vaughan, Will Maldarelli and Chris Paulison, excelled at the 2019 New York State Forensic League State Championship held at Hofstra University in Hempstead April 6-7. The team had 51 entries across 13 categories and 21 students qualified for elimination rounds.

The following students were in the top four of their categories

Zach Seigel ('21) was a semifinalist in Intermediate Lincoln Douglas

Annie Radin and Rachel Meiselman (both '20) were the runners up in Duo Interpretation

Rowan Haffner ('23) was 4th in Junior Varsity Extemp

Jaden Bharara ('22) was 3rd in Junior Varsity Extemp

Genie Enders ('22) is this year's State Champion in Junior Varsity Extemp

Jack Silvers ('21) was 3rd in Varsity Extemp

Julia McMurray ('19) was the runner up in Varsity Oral Interpretation of Literature

Jocelyn Weiss ('19) is this year's State Champion in Varsity Oral Interpretation of Literature

From here, the squad will take five students to this year's Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Kentucky in late April, 7 students to the CFL National Tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the end of May and 9 students to the National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament in Dallas, Texas in June.

We spoke to two students who excelled in extemp and here is what they shared:

Tenth grader, Genie Enders, won the state championship in Junior Varisty ExtempGenie Enders

When did you start debating and where did you learn Extemp?

I started competing in Extemporaneous Speech, or Extemp, in the beginning of the school year last year, as a freshman. I learned Extemp from the upperclassmen officers who had been doing the event for 3-4 years.

Why did you select Extemp?

The current events aspect of Extemp really captured my attention because I am constantly checking the news. I loved the idea of needing to know everything about everything, rather than just focusing on one topic. The time crunch of having 30 minutes to write and learn a speech seemed like a really cool challenge to take on.

What are some of the skills you use?

Time management is super important. Knowing when to stop looking at articles and writing ideas down and transitioning to “walking out” the speech takes a lot of practice. Skim reading is also an essential skill because you only have 30 minutes for the entire round. It took me a lot of time to learn how to extract key information and cut the excess details.

What were a few of the topics you spoke on at the tournament?

The round topics in Extemp were the domestic economy, the foreign economy, the Trump presidency, Brexit, environmental issues, the far right and the far left, politics of identity, and the final round was issues of New York. I spoke about the low inflation rates in the American economy, the status of the German economy, House investigations regarding the Trump White House, Theresa May, the state of preparation for extreme weather events in the US, white nationalism, the Uighur Muslim crisis, and congestion pricing in downtown Manhattan. In total I gave eight speeches this past weekend.

Will you be participating at more events this year?

For me, the state tournament was the last tournament of the year. But I am eager for next season!

Jaden Bharara, also a sophomore, took third place in the state in extemp and said the following:

When did you start debating and where did you learn extemp?

I started doing extemp shortly after arriving at the high school last year. I learned from two upperclassmen already on the speech team at the high school.

Why did you select Extemp?

At the beginning of each year, speech and debate holds an interest meeting where the different sections of the club pitch their categories to the freshmen. Right from the start, extemp appealed to me above the other categories. There was something about getting a question and then giving a speech thirty minutes later that set a fire off in my brain and made me excited.

What are some of the skills you use?

Performing a good extemp speech requires the effective use of many different skills. First, you need to be able to research and form a cohesive argument on your question in a short amount of time. One of the hardest things about extemp is the time frame you have. Both while formulating the argument and memorizing the speech, you have to work quickly.

Then, when delivering the speech, it’s important to maintain a clear, loud, and confident tone. Because you have not actually memorized a speech word for word, you must be able to form sentences on the spot without stumbling or sounding choppy.

What are a few of the topics you spoke on at the tournament?

Some of the topics I spoke on at the tournament included Turkey’s economic state, climate change, Brexit’s impacts, and Uighur Muslims in China.

Will you be participating at more events this year?

I will be participating at one more tournament this year, the NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association) tournament, in June.