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Canfield speech and debate team sets a new standard at national tournament
By Justin Wier
CANFIELD
Canfield High School isn’t a stranger to speech and debate success, but even by its standards, the performance at this year’s national tournament was exceptional.
The school had its best performance nationally in both speech and debate at the National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., last week.
Zachery Bernat, who graduated in June, placed eighth in humorous interpretation, and Eva Lamberson, who will be a senior in the fall, placed 15th in Lincoln-Douglas debate.
In both categories, there were about 250 competitors.
Canfield also received a Debate School of Excellence Award, which places it among the top 20 debate schools in the nation. Only one other school in Ohio received the award.
In addition to Lamberson’s debate performance, Grant DeCapua and Michael Factor finished in the top 46 in public forum debate and Jen Smith and Dominic DuPonty finished in the top 66 in the same category.
“At the end of the day, it was just awesome on all fronts,” said Jeremy Hamilton, the team’s coach.
The school sent nine students to the nationals and seven advanced beyond preliminary competition. In a normal year, only a couple of students out of five or six will advance, Hamilton said.
“The whole group has an infectious passion for this activity,” he said.
DeCapua and Factor’s public forum debate performance was overshadowed by Bernat and Lamberson’s record-setting showings.
“In a normal year, [top 46 in public form debate] is incredible,” Hamilton said. “That would be our top performance.”
For Bernat, the eighth-place finish capped a year in which he won the state championship in humorous interpretation and received a scholarship to compete on Western Kentucky University’s speech and debate team.
“All the tournaments throughout the season I see as practice,” Bernat said. “At the end of the day, it’s all about state and it’s all about nationals.”
Now he’s heading off to WKU with dreams of ending up on Saturday Night Live.
Lamberson said competing nationally gave her and her teammates perspective that will help them next year.
“We saw a lot of new perspectives and different and more creative arguments,” Lamberson said. “Seeing that and having to challenge ourselves a lot more was really important.”
She will lead the team next year, which Hamilton expects to be another great year.
“The new senior class comes in each year and tries to take us to a new level,” he said. “Which is the fun thing for me.”
The accolades are great, he said, but the benefits students get from participating is what it’s all about.
Still, the team’s coach of 12 years appeared impressed by the Debate School of Excellence Award.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “For a school of our stature to be among the top 20 in the nation speaks volumes.”