Two students from the Greeley West High School forensics team recently participated in a highly competitive 5A tournament showcasing their debating skills. The competition marked a very important milestone for these students, emphasizing their critical thinking, public speaking abilities, and dedication.
The two students-Raymundo Ocampo Flores and Haley Francis, dedicated weeks into getting ready for the competition. Their preparation involved thorough and extensive research on both negative and positive aspects of their assigned debate topics. They hosted weekly practice sessions that allowed them to perfect their arguments and develop incredible strategic rebuttals.
Even though they were extremely committed, both students faced many obstacles, especially competing against very experienced and intelligent debaters. “I went up against a girl who had been doing this throughout her whole high school career, and I’ve only been doing it for one year, so that definitely made me a little bit nervous, yet very excited to take on the challenge.” Francis shared.
The tournament features a structured debate format in which student’s abilities are tested to think on their feet. Francis recalled a memorable moment, “A moment that sticks to my head till this day is when the girl I went up against was doing cross examination for my debate, I was able to answer all the questions, and then when we switched and I did cross examination on her, she was unable to completely answer all of them, and that was a key moment in the debate because I felt very happy and accomplished when I beat her in that aspect.”
Ocampo-Flores, who competed in extemporaneous speaking, found the experience very eye opening and challenging. “The speaking that I participated in was very straightforward yet complicated because it was basically debating on the spot with zero notes or any assistance. You are chosen for a topic, a question and have only 30 minutes to create a seven minute speech. You have the option of hearing, and while I was practicing in my column, I overheard another participant’s speech and tried to compare his speech to mine, and improve upon his.”
Ocampo-Flores highlighted the importance of adaptability, “The most important thing to me is attaining as much information as I can. Information is the most important thing, it’s all based on the information and knowledge you contain.”
