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Chaney Speech, Debate Team competes in first season
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The first season of the revived Chaney High School Speech and Debate Team netted two students earning alternate status for the state tournament and others looking forward to next year’s season.
“I love speech,” said freshman La’Rayja Hill, 14. “I miss it.”
Hill and her partner, Chiray Chew, 14, also a freshman, competed in the duo interpretation category. Two people act out a scene or scenes from a play or show, portraying various characters, actions and emotions. Each person may act out more than one character, but props are prohibited.
Hill and Chew placed fourth at the tournament at Poland Seminary High School, and their performance throughout the season made them alternates for the state tournament last weekend.
This school year was the first the city schools fielded a team since 2006 when the program faded.
It was revived last year when Attys. Alan Kretzer and Carl James, who is involved with the Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods, worked with the Youngstown Foundation to create the Youngstown City School District Speech and Debate Fund which initially totaled $10,000.
The fund raises money from the community to support the team.
Tracy Schuler Vivo, Chaney’s visual and performing arts coordinator, said several of the team’s 10 members accumulated enough points to become lifetime members of the National Speech and Debate Association. Some also earned points toward their membership by performing in the school’s production of “Ragtime” last fall.
Jim Courim, the school’s drama teacher, is the team’s head coach, and Shuler Vivo helps with the program.
“I was involved in speech when I was a kid at The Rayen School, and I know how important it is to have a program,” Kretzer said.
He participated in debate as a high-school student and that served as the only training he had when he got involved in moot court while a law student.
“The experience you get — learning confidence, learning how to present yourself in drama, oratorical or debate — those are all things that will definitely have benefits for you,” he said.
Kretzer believes Chaney’s program will continue to progress. “Success breeds success,” he said.
Hill said she didn’t know what speech team was until Courim explained it to her. She thought it was just people speaking and debating. When she learned it includes an acting or interpretative component, she was all in.
“You get to step out of yourself and to go to other places,” Hill said.
She also likes to represent her school.
“I like to show them who Chaney is,” Hill said.
Tiaira Kpakima, 15, a freshman, initially competed in the Prose/Poetry category before moving to Dramatic Interpretation.
Prose/Poetry includes readings from works of prose and poetry, often with a common theme. DI involves contestants performing portions of a play or show and portraying one or several characters.
She was nervous at first but felt she met the challenge when her performance moved another competitor to tears.
“I love acting, and I thought this would give me more time to experience and to do what I like to do,” Kpakima said.
Sophomore Edward Robinson, 17, also completed in Dramatic Interpretation.
“I enjoyed it,” he said. “I got to show off my talent and to meet different people.”
He hopes to compete next year.
Shuler Vivo credited James, Kretzer, ACTION, the Youngstown Foundation and those organizations’ respective executive directors Jan Strasfeld and Rose Carter, for their support in the team’s reestablishment.