This weekend, Olentangy Liberty’s Speech and Debate Team competed in a state tournament at Austintown School District schools. This was the last competition of the year, marking a great season for the team. 

Though next week, novice states are being held, where only first-year competitors are eligible. 

“This is a great opportunity for our first-years to shine, so I hope they are able to see all of their hard work from the year pay off.” said Rachel Horowitz, a Senior on the Speech and Debate Team.

In this past competition, Tony Li (senate) placed second in the state in his event. Other members of the team Sharika Thaploo (senate), Shahana Kalyanasundaram (congress) and Jordan Koth (congress) all made it to the semi-finals in their personal events. Rachel Horowitz made it to the octa-finals.

Throughout the year, coaches Rebecca Granata and Sarah McCarty have coached the students to make these great outcomes possible. 

“We have been practicing after school regularly since September to prepare for speech and debate competitions.” Granata said, “Speech and Debate is a lot like Track and Field; they compete as individuals, but their scores add together for a team score.”

In this competition, Liberty got 24th overall out of the 85 teams that competed. This year, they have had a very impressive team. In their Perrysburg competition, the team finished in second place, and placed fourth at most others. Placing eighth in states was a very big accomplishment for the team, being that only the best people can attend this event. The team has also seen some impressive underclassmen this year, like sophomore Tony Li, who has already been to the State Tournament twice. Even as a freshman, he had already distinguished himself as a part of the top 25 percent of Congressional debaters in the state.

“He is the highest placing team member since I began coaching six years ago,” Granata said.

Speech and Debate run at the same time as winter sports do. So, as this was the last competition of the year, it is time for people to begin considering joining next year’s team. The season begins in October, and the regular season ends around the end of January, with districts and states in February and March. The team offers speaking and debate events, improving an individual’s thinking and speaking skills, while allowing them to challenge themselves at events. Although they compete as individuals, they also compete as a team by adding all of their scores together for the team’s overall score.