By James “Buffalo” Saint Amour ’10
THE ROUNDUP

The Brophy Speech and Debate team has been on a roll this year.

“We’ve won a few tournaments and gotten at the very least second place as an overall team,” said senior Matt Johnson ’10 in an e-mail.

“Young members are competing and showing promise for the future, while veteran members are working hard and performing,” Johnson continued.
Drew Berens ’10 said that much of the responsibility and leadership falls onto the seniors on the team.

Speech and Debate has participated in numerous events all around the country including tournaments held at the University of California Berkeley, Harvard University and the national qualifiers, which were held here at Brophy.

Along with these tournaments, Brophy’s team has participated in tournaments around the Valley with other high schools such as Mesa Mountain View, Desert Vista and Mesa doing well in each.

The Speech and Debate team participates in categories like Extemporaneous, Impromptu, Oratory, Expository, Humorous Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, Prose, Duo Acting, Duo Interpretation, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate and Policy Debate.

Berens added before the state tournament that “I think we represent a real threat to Desert Vista who has won state for many years.”

During the state tournament Brophy took second place right behind rival Desert Vista.

First place competitors included Berens, Konstantine Vrazhilov ’10 and RJ Silva ’10 along with numerous others.

Other state finalists include Steven Ebensberger ’10, Jack Wolf ’10 and Ian White ’12.

Johnson said that after the state tournament there are two tournaments the team will compete in.

“There is a tournament called the Tournament of Champions, which is out of state and is very difficult to qualify for, (along with) nationals,” he said.

“Most notably we won the Arizona District National Qualifying Tournament,” Berens said, “We also have qualified several people to both the Tournament of Champions and Nationals.”

Johnson said the team is open for students to join.

“Speech and debate is a fun and rewarding event that people should try and see how they like it.  We could use more people on the team,” he said.

Results from State Speech and Debate Tournament

Individual State Champions:
Andrew Berens—Original Oratory and Student Congress
Konstantine Vrazhilov—Extemporaneous Speaking and Student Congress
RJ Silva—Duo Acting
Cathy Landry—Duo Acting
Andrew Anderson—Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Zane Waxman—Policy Debate
Michael Maerowitz—Policy Debate
Max Maerowitz—Policy Debate
Andy McCoy—Policy Debate

Individual State Finalists:
Steven Ebensberger—2nd place in Expository Speaking, 6th place in Extemporaneous Speaking, 3rd place in Student Congress
RJ Silva—2nd place in Poetry Interpretation
Jack Wolf—3rd place in Student Congress, 2nd place in Original Oratory
Ian White—4th place in Prose Interpretation
Zane Waxman—2nd place in Impromptu Speaking
Andrew Berens—3rd place in Impromptu Speaking
Nicholas Schlegel—6th place in Impromptu Speaking