Santa Fe High School junior Loren Bachicha improvises a reading of the kids book If You Take a Mouse to the Movies for classmates Monday during speech and debate class. SFHS students made a strong showing this year at the state speech and debate championships in late February. Now, they’re preparing for national qualifiers. The team’s first competition — held in September — lit a fire under the students.
Santa Fe High School teacher Lisa Goldman, center, uses recordings to help illustrate a dramatic storytelling assignment Monday during speech and debate class.
Santa Fe High School teacher Lisa Goldman, left, talks Monday about their next assignment, a dramatic storytelling using a kids book during speech. SFHS students made a strong showing this year at the state speech and debate championships in February.
Santa Fe High School junior Loren Bachicha improvises a reading of the kids book If You Take a Mouse to the Movies for classmates Monday during speech and debate class. SFHS students made a strong showing this year at the state speech and debate championships in late February. Now, they’re preparing for national qualifiers. The team’s first competition — held in September — lit a fire under the students.
When Josh Almeida arrived in Albuquerque for the New Mexico State Speech and Debate Championships in late February, he felt nervous, uncertain.
“How the hell did I get here?” he asked himself.
The Santa Fe High School sophomore stood by the University of New Mexico’s duck pond in a suit. Business formal attire is a hallmark of a speech and debate competition; still, Almeida said he felt like “a fish out of water” — a duck far from the duck pond.
He planned to present a 10-minute, memorized speech called a dramatic interpretation before a group of judges. He was no stranger to the format, but the state competition marked the first time he would present the new talk, one pulled from an unlikely source — Family Guy.
Almeida went on to secure a first-place medal. His classmate, senior Nandi Strieker, took home second place in humorous interpretation, a format similar to dramatic interpretation but with a comedic bent.
The statewide recognition is the latest in a series of wins — including strong showings at local tournaments — for Santa Fe High’s debate team, said Lisa Goldman, the team’s teacher and coach. Her students are now preparing to compete at a national qualifying competition later this month and — potentially — the 2023 National Speech and Debate Tournament in Phoenix this summer.
Late in the last school year, Santa Fe High administrators asked Goldman to teach the speech and debate class, where students prepare for competitions. She agreed, even though she had no formal training in teaching the subject.
Over the summer, she worked with Justin Mirabal, a Santa Fe High senior who’s been captaining the speech and debate team since his sophomore year, to learn about the dozen events included under the speech and debate umbrella, ranging from policy to philosophy, from informational to impromptu.
Santa Fe High School teacher Lisa Goldman, center, uses recordings to help illustrate a dramatic storytelling assignment Monday during speech and debate class.
The team’s first competition — held in September at the Roundhouse — lit a fire under the students, many of whom had never competed previously, Goldman said.
One such student was Jane Gonzales, a freshman and first-year debater who earned a medal at the competition. That helped her gain confidence.
“I think the key is just asking a lot of questions, really putting yourself out there,” Gonzales said. “Impromptu speaking is a skill that I’ve definitely acquired a little bit more of here that I think also applies a lot to real life.”
The success resulted in a group of about nine students becoming passionate about competing, Goldman said.
Almeida was one of them.
His decision to prepare a Family Guy interpretation for the state finals was in part the result of a wager with a friend. The friend had bet Almeida a steak dinner, payable if he won state’s first-place medal for dramatic interpretation using the adult animated TV series as his source material.
Almeida accepted the challenge. He spliced together pieces of an episode to create a somber speech. Although the original subject matter is intended to be funny, Almeida’s interpretation of it was anything but; the speech grappled with aimlessness, lack of direction and suicidal thoughts.
Almeida didn’t expect to get first place, he said. In addition to source material some judges might consider absurd, the Family Guy-inspired speech was brand new, untested in previous competitions. Surrounded by teams of debaters, Almeida initially didn’t even think he’d placed.
Santa Fe High School teacher Lisa Goldman, left, talks Monday about their next assignment, a dramatic storytelling using a kids book during speech. SFHS students made a strong showing this year at the state speech and debate championships in February.
So when his name was called as New Mexico’s champion of dramatic interpretation, Almeida was elated. He hugged his teammates and coach. He texted his friend: “You better get that steak money ready.”
Almeida isn’t sure whether he’ll be as successful at the national qualifier competition.
Goldman is confident in her students’ potential: “We will have a few going to nationals,” she said, predicting Almeida and second-place winner Strieker would be among them.
It’s essential to show high school students they can earn recognition for something other than athletic prowess — and that’s what speech and debate does, Goldman said.
“A class like this — even if you don’t compete — you’re teaching kids to be confident,” she said. “You’re teaching kids to think for themselves. You’re teaching kids, ‘If you’re going to get into an argument or a debate, now you know how to win.’ ”
