The Moorpark College speech and forensics team is on a mission to gain some recognition.
Despite being one of the most prominent community college programs, ranked third in the nation last year, it remains evident that few people know about the team.
Going as far as giving out extra credit to students who attended, the Moorpark College forensics team hosted the 14th annual Night Before Nationals at the Moorpark College Performing Arts Plaza in front of a packed house on March 24.
According to forensics coach Rolland Petrello, the team started hosting the event in an attempt to gain recognition from faculty and students.
“We realized that most people on campus, even though we won nationals, had no idea who we were,” Petrello said. “We started doing this 14 years ago so people could see what we do.”
Even if extra credit was the only incentive, students were in for quite the journey Wednesday night.
The forensics team primarily focused on the speech component, since Petrello said the event could last an extra hour on just one debate.
As a result, three categories were introduced: Public Affairs, or Platform speaking, which was written out, researched, memorized speeches; Impromptu, which was a speech driven on a quotation from the audience the speaker had to decipher the quotation and make a speech in under seven minutes; and Oral Interpretation, which was, in reality, acting.
Megan Clattu’s informative speech on the “Magic Bullet” captivated an audience that soon became aware of a long-lost treatment to cure all diseases.
Other speeches included drama interpretation, as well as persuasion, prose interpretation and an oral interpretation.
The persuasive speech called for reform in the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuality in the military, and the oral interpretation by Ebony Taylor used Shakespeare to interpret the art of hip-hop in contemporary society, finding the parallel between them.
According to forensics coach Jill McCall, people have a misrepresentation of what the speech and debate team does.
“I think that when people hear the term ‘speech and debate,’ they think stereotypically of politicians,” she said. “They don’t realize they are acting events or types of speeches they are familiar with.”
The Moorpark forensics team was ranked third in the nation last year and number one in state.
According to McCall, who won a national championship as a team member of the Bradley University forensics team back in college, the prominence of the program and success it has garnered remain a catalyst for members of the team to compete at a high level.
“I think that being a part of tradition is a huge motivator. Knowing that there are decades of [successful] teams before you sets a precedent,” she said. “They’re not just going in there with individuals, but with a legacy.”
Vince Carlos, a 19-year-old computer science major, enjoyed the event more than he thought he would.
“[I liked] how they put entertainment into their speeches,” he said. “[It’s] not what I expected.”
The Moorpark College forensics team hopes to continue its success when they travel to New Orleans for the National Championships on April 2 for the events taking place on April 6 to 10.
