The Qualifiers and Their Qualifications

As you have hopefully read in the previous post, the T-Wolf S&D team qualified seven members to the National Forensic League's National Tournament for the 2011 season. I'm going to go ahead and assume that the majority of you reading this aren't all too familiar with the National Forensic League and the events it has created for competition, so in this post I will do my best to fill you in on our qualifiers and the events they will be participating in at the tournament next week in Dallas.


Timothy Bedeaux:


Tim is our team captain, who graduated this year. He qualified to the National Tournament last year, coincidentally in the same event as he will participate in this year: Legislative Debate, also known as Student Congress. In this event, competitors assemble as a mock United States Congress, debating bills and resolutions brought to the floor by their fellow Senators, just like in real Congress! Competitors are required to follow Parliamentary Procedure, a formal set of rules and procedures that create a very professional atmosphere. A video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU0N2rkyqeg&feature=related


At the National Tournament, competitors are allowed to enter in one "supplemental event," an event they can compete in in the case of being knocked out of competition in their primary event. Tim is entered in Prose as his supplemental event. Prose is an interpretation event in which students are allotted five minutes to interpret a piece of their choice.




Quinlan Cao:


Quinlan, a rising senior, and our other co-captain for next years season, has qualified in International Extemporaneous Speaking. This event requires students to arrive prepared with information and articles on various international affairs, and give a seven minute speech on a random question drawn out of an envelope. Competitors have thirty minutes to prepare the speech, using only written resources they have printed/prepared in advance. It is highly recommended to use as many pieces of evidence from as many articles as possible in a speech.


Quinlan is entered in Extemp Commentary as his supplemental event. Extemp Commentary is just like International Extemp, however the topics are focused on domestic, U.S. issues, the speech is five minutes, and the prep time is cut to twenty five minutes.




Erin Bush:


Erin, a graduated senior, will be competing in Lincoln Douglas Debate, a one-on-one debate centered around issues of morality and justice. Her topic at Nationals will be, Resolved: When forced to choose, a just government ought to prioritize universal human rights over it's national interest. An LD round is structured in order to allow both the affirmative and negative speakers a chance to present their arguments, refute their opponents arguments, defend their own points, and finally convince the judge to vote for them through "voting issues." 


Erin's supplemental event is Supplemental Debate, a slightly more relaxed version of LD that is focused more on domestic and foreign policy issues. The topic of debate will be randomly selected from a pre-determined list before each round. The topics include oil subsidies, health care, and the war in Afghanistan.




Madi Mateski and Poiette Hilbun: 


Madi (a rising senior) and Poiette (a graduated senior) are a Duo Interpretation team, and will be competing in Duo at Nationals. Duo is a two person interpretation event that allows two competitors to interpret a piece of their choice, either humorously, dramatically, or in a manner that includes both. The rules of Duo prohibit the members of a team from interacting with each other in any way; no touching, or even looking at each other. This proposes a heightened challenge to convey the piece to the audience in an understandable manner. A video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfu1e4JQRfQ&feature=related




Marc Lucero and Jessi Green:


Marc (rising junior) and Jessi (rising sophomore) will be competing in Duo at the National Tournament, alongside Madi and Poiette. I've already explained the event, so yeah. Marc and Jessi are special for they are the youngest qualifiers from our team, and among the youngest qualifiers from the state. 




Keep following this blog for constant updates on the Tournament! We leave for Dallas Monday morning, and you can expect daily posts at least, likely more.