In room 209 at Clackamas High School, the judge sets a 15-minute timer.

This is all the time the two debating teams will have to prepare a full argument on whether or not schools should have cell phone bans. The duo from La Salle, sophomore Daniel Garbitelli and co-captain senior Avari Brocker, arguing against the ban, step into the hallway to get their argument ready. Two students from Ida B. Wells High School, La Salle’s opponents, speak quickly in hushed tones, writing down anything they can use as one looks on his phone for sources. 

When the timer is up, the debate begins. Each side presents their cases and rebuttals. Less than half an hour later, it’s over. The students file out of the room, knowing one of their first events of the day is over. 

This format of debate, known as parliamentary debate, is one of the many events at the tournament at Clackamas High School that La Salle’s open Speech and Debate team — or the part of the team with members that have been participating in speech and debate for over a year — attended for more than 12 hours on Saturday, Dec. 7. 

There are two basic groups of events: debate, where one or two people are given anywhere between a minute and the entire season to argue over a given topic, and IEs (Individual Events), which involve every event that isn’t a debate. 

There are many different ways of giving speeches — for example, Original Oratory, which is intended to shine a spotlight on a modern-day issue, or Radio, where a judge looks away, and the speaker talks about a current event to simulate a podcast or radio program. 

The La Salle team was successful at this particularly large tournament. Almost every member made it to the finals in at least one event, and many finished in the top three. 

In the Extemporaneous Speaking category, a type of speech given with thirty minutes to prepare, junior Kieran Crist-Kenworthy got second place, as did senior Michael Doran in Radio Commentary. Co-captain junior Gabrielle Jones and junior Leah Simon received third place in Duo Dramatic Interpretation, a two-person performance of a play.

Two students, sophomore Ryan Lengkeek and Brocker, won first place in their respective events. Brocker took first in Impromptu Speech, where she prepared a five-minute speech on societally-imposed limitations, particularly those affecting people with disabilities, in just one minute. Lengkeek won first in Original Oratory with his fully memorized 10-minute speech on the problematic portrayal of love in the mainstream media.

Speech and Debate competitions are scored similarly to golf or cross country: the goal is to have the lowest score. Judges rank participants from best to worst, assigning each student a number of points based on their ranking.

The person with the fewest points wins.

Every member of the team participated in at least two events over the course of the day, one debate event and one IE event, and many did more. 

Other speeches were given by La Salle students, such as senior Brandon Sasamoto. Sasamoto performed an original oratory on the way cities are built and limiting children’s independence, as well as an After Dinner Speech (ADS) on the problematic nature of red pill influencers: “men’s rights” activists like Andrew Tate who claim that they have taken “red pill,” a reference to the movie “The Matrix” and that members of the movement are in touch with reality, seeing men as oppressed members of society. ADS is a speech that aims to be both informative and entertaining, ending in a toast. 

Following Sasamoto, junior Emerson Jones gave an extemporaneous speech on Mexican drug cartels. 

The following Saturday, on Dec. 14, the team attended another tournament at Ida B. Wells, this time with both the novice and open categories. Novice speech and debate members are members in their first year of speech and debate.

La Salle once again performed well at that tournament. “We did pretty well,” Brocker said, but what stood out to her most in the tournament wasn’t the rankings — it was how close her team had gotten.

“The amount of camaraderie was just so prevalent at this tournament,” she said. “That level of community hadn’t been felt yet this season, and I’m so glad that it’s finally here.”

This tournament ended with many La Salle students either placing or finishing as a finalist. In the Novice Parliamentary Debate category, freshman Patrick McGowan and freshman Jasper Trehearne came in third place. Juniors David Sharyan and Kat Marks also finished in third place in their respective categories of Open Congressional Debate and Novice Radio Commentary. Brocker placed second in Impromptu Speech, and once again, two people got first place: Lengkeek in Original Oratory and freshman Landon Gantt in Novice Informative Speaking.

As the season progresses, Brocker expects the team to continue improving.

“Every week, we just refine our craft and develop in our skills,” she said. “You can see the improvement in the placings that happened at this tournament, and I think that is just going to continue as we work together and make each other better throughout the year.”