State champion OCC debate team aims for national title
The Orange Coast College Speech, Debate and Readers’ Theater Team made a point in taking the California Community College Forensics Association’s state championship last month. Now it hopes to hammer it home at the national tournament next week in Cleveland.
The Costa Mesa squad took 21 members to the state competition, where it defeated more than 40 other teams March 12 to 15 in Woodland Hills. The annual contest includes all California community colleges that have a speech and debate team. In addition to debating and speech making, the 12 events include theater-related performances and interpretation of prose and poetry.
Orange Coast finished with a total score of 270 points. Ventura County’s Moorpark College took second place, 63 points behind.
“We like to call our group the speech, debate and theater team. We’re one of the only colleges in California that take on all three categories,” according to Chris DeSurra, OCC’s director of forensics.
The state competition’s Readers’ Theater event gives three to five students from each team 25 minutes to write and perform a play on an assigned topic. Their final work must express an argument on the topic.
Orange Coast performed on two topics: “Living Waters,” which demonstrated the importance of searching for one’s ancestry, and “The Tower,” which tackled the student loan issue.
“This experience has enabled me to become a better speaker and writer,” student Alex Malinis said. “I’ve learned that everyone’s voice is powerful, so we should use it.”
OCC’s Dorri Mang received the Speaker of the Tournament Award after winning all four of her events: Readers’ Theater, Persuasion, Informative and Speech to Entertain. Winning four gold medals is the highest achievement a student can accomplish at the competition.
“It’s an honor, but I couldn’t do it without the team,” Mang said. “Even through the most stressful moments at this competition, this team is always by your side.”
Before attending the state tournament, Orange Coast students spent months preparing.
The team’s coaches, all of whom are instructors of communication studies at the college, helped refine techniques and strategies for the students to practice, including memorization, articulation, enunciation, eye contact, body language and image management.
“I found the confidence to get in front of an audience and speak,” said student Andrew Malinis, Alex Malinis’ twin brother. “There are so many things I’ve learned here that I’ll use in real life, like dealing with conflict in a professional way.”
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