ECRCHS Speech and Debate
2013 - 2014 Tournament Results
CSU Long Beach Tournament
9/28/13 - 9/29/13
This was the first tournament of the 2013-2014 school year. Emily (not pictured) managed to take 9th place in Original Advocacy, but didn't advance to finals. Hilda was the only student entered in the Varsity division because she was the only member from the previous year that had not either graduated or left the team. She advanced to semi-finals in Congress. Albert and Brendan both did exceptionally well and advanced to semi-finals in the novice division, their first time at a Speech and Debate tournament. The super-star of the weekend was Sophia, who on her very first attempt made it to the final round in the novice division of Congress and held her ground in finals as well. Shawn was the only team member that didn't advance past his preliminary rounds in novice Congress.
TCFL Congress Tournament: Hart HS
10/4/13
Although the team wasn’t able to garner any trophies the prior weekend, this tournament turned the tide in a big way with a collection of novice. Hilda took on the role of Varsity Proceeding Officer and came in 1st Place in the voting. lbert broke to Semi-Finals last week and this week led the team with a 2nd Place finish. Brendan came in 22nd out of of 64 competitors and broke to Semi-Finals last weekend and at Hart came in 3rd. Shawn ended up in 3rd Place. Marlon came into the competition at an even bigger disadvantage than Shawn; Marlon had never competed in Speech & Debate. Nonetheless, he trained with the team after school during the week and then represented himself quite well with a 3rd Place finish. Emily accompanied her team to the Hart tournament and sat in to observe her teammates’ Congress sessions so she could get a feel for how this event is run.
CSU Fullerton Tournament
10/19/13 - 10/20/13
Marlon Poroj: Marlon came through with ECR’s first big victory of 2013-14, taking 1st Place in Congressional Debate (Novice Division) against 90 contestants from across California, including schools that take Congress *very* seriously and provide their students with the best advice, coaching and research. This was an extremely impressive breakthrough for Marlon, competing in just his second Congress ever!
Shawn Haq and Albert Tang: Commendations go out to Shawn and Albert for breaking to Semi-Finals against the same field and earning medals.
Hilda Velásquez-Galvez: Hilda ranked Top 3 in three rounds of Varsity Impromptu and missed breaking to Semi-Finals by a SINGLE point, finishing tied for 17th out of 56 competitors.
Emily Mercer: After observing the recent Hart competition, Emily gave Congress a go for the first time, and she also debuted a lengthened version of her Original Advocacy piece this weekend. No awards were gained but plenty of experience was.
Schurr HS Tournament
10/26/13 - 10/27/13
Marlon Poroj and Hilda Velásquez-Galvez: With the exception of Hilda, the active team members this year have all been rookies and thus it came as bit of a shock when Professor Velásquez asked the team to consider venturing into the Spartan Fall Classic where all the events would be of Open/Varsity caliber. Numerous members of the squad tool on the challenge, and obviously we were all quite thrilled when Marlon landed a 6th Place trophy out of field of 55 competitors. With this being her second year of competition, Hilda obviously of Varsity standing. However, this tournament was in her first semester as a Varsity competitor, and she is, after all, a mere sophomore. Thus, it was also quite impressive to see Hilda grab the 7th Place position, right behind Marlon.
Shawn Haq: Shawn was also in the mix for Student Congress but wasn’t able to break to Finals like Marlon and Hilda.
Emily Mercer: Emily swooped into Shurr for Saturday with her Original Advocacy piece on the Foster Care system, and faced Varsity competition for the first time. No award was won, but valuable experience was gained.
Claremont HS Tournament
11/2/13
Coming off a pretty successful Open Tournament at Schurr the prior weekend, Marlon Poroj, Hilda Velásquez-Galvez, and the rest of the team took on another Open tournament at the newly minted Bargain Belt Invitational. Out of field of 35 Student Congress competitors, Hilda and Marlon won some hardware with a 2nd and 5th place finish respectively. Albert ended in a four way tie for 14th place; Shawn tied three opponents at the 21st position and Emily tied with three debaters at the 24th place.
While Hilda and Marlon gave the team some pretty good victories in Congress on this day, the team had a very modest showing in the Individual Events. For most people, their schedules were filled with first attempts at their respective IE’s. Perhaps the sole victory for the day was Marlon’s 2nd place finish in Oratorical Interpretation.
TCFL Novice IE Tournament: Cleveland HS
11/9/13
Emily Mercer & Marlon Poroj: The BIG star of the evening was Emily, who began the night on the verge of that ever elusive “Double Picket-Fence” (straight 1st Places in all rounds in two events) in Duo and Original Advocacy!! She and her partner Marlon did actually succumb to the pressure, and hiccuped a nervous and rushed 3rd Place performance in the 3rd round of Duo, but their high speaker points from the first two rounds helped them break the tie for 1st Place overall in Duo. Yay! In OA, Emily impressively closed the deal on her picket-fence opportunity, besting the fellow who picket-fenced Novice OA at Long Beach! Marlon also earned a second trophy for the day by tying for 2nd Place but getting tie-broken all the way down to 5th Place in Original Interpretation.
Albert Tang: In other news, Albert wowed everyone by taking 2nd Place in SPAR out of 87 contestants (missed a picket fence by ONE lousy rank) and earned a certificate in Impromptu as well.
Shiloh Sacks: Next, Shiloh pleasantly surprised by improving every round and taking 3rd Place in
TCFL Debate Tournament: SOCES
11/27/13
Following a string of recent successes, the decided to take a shot at Parliamentary Debate, even though they were totally Novice competitors in this event going up against Varsity competitors. Team veterans who graduated from Elco in 2013, Faras and Nick, were kind enough to lend the young team their debate advice via 4-5 lengthy after school training sessions. Although there wasn’t an abundant amount of success for the young competitors in their maiden attempts at “Parli”, it did open the door for success in this area later in the year.
Marlon Poroj and Emily Mercer: This young team, who 2 1/2 weeks earlier came in 1st Place in Duo Interpretation, had a relatively decent day, going 1-2 .
Shawn Haq and Brendan Pichay: This debating duo were also able to pick up a win against the seasoned, veteran competition.
Albert Tang and Hilda Velásquez-Galvez: This team was not able to pick up a win on this day of competition, but they did give one of the better team’s in the competition a good run for their money.
La Costa Canyon HS Tournament
12/6/13 - 12/8/13
A few members of the team ventured down to the Greater San Diego area with Professor Velázquez to take on some of the toughest competition this side of the Mississippi. Here are the reports the rest of the team received from down south over the weekend.
Congratulations to Hilda Velasquez-Galvez for having broken to the Semi-Finals of Congress Debate at the prestigious La Costa Canyon Invitational. Against a statewide field bursting with State and National qualifiers, Hilda Velasquez-Galvez is commended for tying for 21st in Congressional Debate. Hilda could have TRIPLE broken at the huge La Costa tournament! She broke in Congress, missed by ONE rank in Impromptu and then tied (along with Marlon) with three other teams for the last spot to get into Semis with an identical cume of 9 and 67 speaker ranks. The tie among those four teams was broken by seeing which of them got a 1st place rank, and only one of them had (going 4-1-4). The only consolation is that neither of the teams who got into Semis with a cume of 9 advanced to Finals. Nevertheless congratulations for nearly pulling off an impressive triple-break at a tough tournament to shine at!
Cypress College Tournament
12/13/13 - 12/14/13
Here is a quick break-down of this weekend’s tournament.
Marlon Poroj: 5th (of 53), Varsity Congress
Hilda Velásquez-Galvez: 13th (of 53), Varsity Congress
Marlon/Hilda: 16th (of 22), Varsity Duo
Albert Tang: 5th (of 97), Novice Congress; 14th (of 87), Nov. Impromptu
Shawn Haq: 5th (of 5), Nov. Thematic; 6th, (of 97), Nov. Congress; 9th (of 87), Nov. Impromptu
Emily Mercer: 14th (of 37), Nov. Persuasion (tie-broken to 19th); 21st (of 97), Nov. Congress (tie)
TCFL Congress Tournament: El Camino Real Charter HS
12/21/13
Shawn Haq: Shawn had the biggest day for the team. In spite of having to deal with Finals week leading up to the competition, he captured a 1st Place trophy in JV Student Congress.
Sophia Funkhouser: After early success in the year, Sophia took some time off, rejoined the team, and instantly earned a trophy with a 2nd Place finish in Novice Congress! It’s great seeing her back in action.
Albert Tang: Albert also had a very solid showing with a 3rd Place finish in JV Congress. Albert has been one of the core success stories in Congress all year and he kept it up on the home court.
Emily Mercer: Up to this point, Emily had won trophies in speaking and acting categories, but an award in debate had eluded her. Although is was a mere 4th Place finish in Novice Congress, it opened the door for her in this category.
Brendan Pichay: Brendan was also able to trophy, with a 5th Place finish in a challenging field.
Hilda Velásquez-Galvez: Along with Marlon Poroj, Hilda has been one of the two stalwarts for the team in Student Congress all year long. As the lone Varsity competitor from the very start of the year, Hilda has been up against some tough competition and represented the team and herself quite well. Thus, it was a bit of a shock when her name wasn’t called at the awards ceremony at the end of the tournament. As it turns out, there was an oversight in the tabulation room that accidentally removed her from trophy contention. Fortunately, the Tri-County Forensic League caught the problem and awarded her a top-tier trophy for her performance after the teams returned from Winter Break.
Nick Dilando: Nick was active with the team last year and made his maiden appearance of the year with the 2013-14 squad at this tournament. At first, it seemed like he had been shut out in this return to action, but as had been the case with Hilda, an oversight in the tabulation room momentarily removed him from trophy contention. However, the error in this instance was also cleared up and Nick received a trophy for his stately skills.
Cal Lutheran University Tournament
1/3/14 - 1/5/14
Marlon Poroj: Marlon was one of the more successful Elco team members this weekend. In the Student Congress (Open) division, he finished 4th out of 40 competitors. Further, he broke to Finals in Novice Oratorical Interpretation and took 3rd place!
Shawn Haq: Shawn, did not make it to the heights of Marlon, but like Marlon, he broke to Finals in the Student Congress Open division, and thus he was amongst the top 13 in the Finals round. Shawn broke to Finals in Novice Oratorical Interpretation as well and took 2nd place.
Emily Mercer: In her last time competing in the Novice division in Original Advocacy, Emily tied for 2nd. How close were the top finishers? In the Finals round, the 1st Place finisher, Emily, and the other 2nd place finisher all tied with an average score of 2.5 from the two-judge panel.
Shiloh Saks: Since winning a trophy at the Tri-County Forensic League Novice Individual Events Tournament in November, Shiloh has not been active on the Elco Speech and Debate circuit. However, at Cal Lu, she returned to her old form with a break to Finals in Original Prose and Poetry!
Albert Tang: Albert is one of the team’s mainstays in Student Congress, but this weekend he wasn’t able to break through to the Finals round. However, he did break to Finals in Novice Impromptu.
Hilda Velásquez-Galvez: Due to an odd procedure to determine the Finals round for Congress, Hilda did not break. Typically, the lowest cume (rankings) for the first three rounds determines who makes it to the Finals. For some reason, the administrator in charge of this part of the tournament arbitrarily added his own innovation mid-competition, and thus Hilda did not advance. The tournament reported that they will either discontinue this innovation or publicize it in the tournament rules in advance of the next tournament.
Brendan Pichay: Congratulations also go out to Brendan for breaking to Finals in Student Congress. That put him among the top 13 out the 40 competitors in this event.
Sarem Haq: In his only his second attempt in Impromptu, Sarem broke to Finals in Novice Impromptu.
ECRCHS Speech and Debate