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Boardman speech team talks its way to the top
Members of the Spartan speech team must audition to be selected.
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Liza Wood (17) and Elena Svenson (18), both of Boardman, are seniors at Boardman High School preparing for their debate at Austintown Fitch this weekend. Its part of practicing for the 2008-2009 Lincoln-Douglas Debate, a series of debates at local schools.
By Denise Dick
BOARDMAN — Their speaking, debating and acting abilities rank them in the top 1 percent of student forensic programs nationwide.
The Boardman High School speech team earned 310 degrees, or points, by the end of the 2007-08 season, placing them in the National Forensic League’s Societe de 300 — the only Mahoning Valley school to achieve the distinction.
The total also ranked the school 74th in the country.
The school also earned the recognition for the 2006-07 season.
Students compete in two debate categories and nine individual events in Saturday tournaments beginning in late October and running through early March. Members audition before being selected.
“It’s pretty competitive,” said Eric Simione, head speech coach and a history teacher at the school.
This year’s team roster includes 67 students.
Seniors Jaclyn Williams and Ellyanna Kessler, both 17, are among them.
Williams competes in dramatic interpretation and Kessler in public forum debate.
Williams auditioned at the end of her freshman year after hearing one of her teachers talk about speech to one of her friends. At that time, she didn’t know much about it.
“When I tried out it was my 15th birthday — May 25. It was a Thursday,” Williams said. “I didn’t want to stay after school because it was my birthday, and I almost didn’t try out.”
Friends persuaded her to do it, and she has no regrets.
“When you go to tournaments, there’s a lot of downtime,” Williams said. “You socialize with a lot of people. I’m a social butterfly, I guess.”
She’s made many friends with whom she’s remained in touch even after they’ve graduated.
Williams, who placed in all but one tournament last year, also qualified for the national tournament in Las Vegas.
Participants in dramatic interpretation prepare a portion of a play or other literary work and act out the different roles, taking on different voices, facial expressions and postures to convey various characters.
This year, Williams is competing with “Carriers” by Jerome McDonough, which tells a story about the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. She portrays six characters in the piece.
Kessler joined the team as a freshman mostly because her older brothers, who also had competed, encouraged her. Her first two years, she competed in original oratory where participants write, memorize and deliver a speech on a particular topic.
She switched to public forum debate as a junior.
“I asked to switch,” Kessler said.
She preferred the variety offered by debating, she said.
In public forum, students compete in teams of two. They learn a topic at the beginning of each month and research and prepare.
This month’s question is “Resolved: The United States should implement universal health care based on the French model.”
Teams prepare arguments, taking the pro and con positions. What side they argue depends on a coin toss at the beginning of each round.
“You get to meet a lot of other kids,” Kessler said of what she enjoys about speech. “It’s a rewarding experience, and you get to work on your speaking skills, and it’s a lot of fun.”
The Canfield, Niles McKinley and Howland high school teams were recognized for reaching more than 200 points in the 2007-08 season.
A team’s total is based on individual points accumulated by students stemming from the scores they earn at tournaments.
Simione has been the school’s speech coach for 19 years and competed while a Boardman student. The team’s other two coaches are Brian Racz and Evelyn Stanton; David Lawson, a former team member who now attends Kent State University, also helps.
The coaches videotape students auditioning with a one- to two-minute prepared piece. Simione reviews the tapes, selecting students and placing them in the categories that best suit their individual abilities.
“It’s not like I have some kind of special magic” for putting competitors in the right categories, Simione said. “I’ve just been really lucky.”