Speech and Debate experiences its most successful year

Last year, few believed that much would be accomplished by a two-man speech team and a slightly larger debate team. Just a year later, the Speech and Debate Team has reached new heights. The weekend of March 17, the team competed in the state tournament at Bloomsburg University, with Fourth Former Charlie Noble going all the way to the semi-finals in the Impromptu Speech category. 

“As long as I’ve been here, this is the best we’ve ever done.”

Mr. Javier LLuch

“I’ve been a coach for nine years,” Spanish teacher and Debate coach Mr. Javier Lluch said. “As long as I’ve been here, this is the best we’ve ever done.” 

Prior to the state competition, Fourth Former Mason Wiegand reached the quarterfinals for Extemporaneous Speech at the Pennsbury Tournament, the furthest point a Haverford student had gained in this competition. This success marked the start of Haverford’s best season in speech and debate in recent years. 

The trend continued leading up to the state tournament, starting with the qualifiers. Aside from participating in many previous tournaments to even qualify for the state tournament, Charlie Noble broke from the preliminary rounds in Impromptu Speech and made it to the semifinals. Noble is the first Haverford student to achieve that milestone for his event, earning him seventh in the state. 

“There’s a lot more pressure when you’re at a bigger tournament. There are also a lot more people at the big tournament. There were just five people with us [at local competitions] and then at the big tournament it was over 30 competing in our group,” Noble said. “You have to place in certain positions to give yourself a chance, so it’s just a lot more knowing about where you have to place in certain rooms.”  

“[The tournament] was absolutely worth it. For me personally, as a judge and a coach, I always get to judge really, really good rounds.”

Mr. Javier Lluch

The tournament took place over two days at Bloomsburg, two hours northwest of campus. This was the first tournament since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“It was absolutely worth it. For me personally, as a judge and a coach, I always get to judge really, really good rounds,” Mr. Lluch said. “It’s one of the things I definitely missed about doing things in person.”

“It was an enjoyable experience because it’s something different. And it made me have to get out of my comfort zone,” Noble said. “I have to learn how to be around people, so it’s just one of those experiences that will help you later in life.” 

Aside from competing with other students from various schools, these trips also require exercising social skills as members meet new people. 

“If one team qualifies, we can send a bunch of kids to the open events, so yes we will [do this again in the future],” Mr. Lluch said. 

Still, it is not certain if Haverford will qualify again for the state tournament, especially with more schools entering next year. 

“[Lincoln Douglas] has one person, but he’s committed, but the [Public Forum speakers] need to be a little more committed,” Mr. Lluch said. Lincoln-Douglas speech—an event in which two students directly debate each other on a world topic—currently has one committed student: Sixth Former Jingyuan Chen. With Chen graduating in June, someone will need to fill this role. 

Mr. Lluch said, “We need more students and probably more committed PF [Public Forum] debaters.”

With such a great season, the team would like to repeat and improve this year’s results. 

“There’s always an opportunity for Haverford to do very well in one of these tournaments at any point if we get people who really want to give it their full effort,” Noble said, “You may not see yourself doing it, but that’s the same place that I was in last year. I didn’t know if I was going to do it, but I decided to give it a try.” 

“Part of doing really well [in debate] is just getting more people involved.”

Charlie Noble ’25

Nearly six months later, Noble sees himself as the seventh-best impromptu speaker in the state. 

“If we had many other students that decide to just try something new, then we would definitely be doing way better at these tournaments,” Noble said. “Part of doing really well is just getting more people involved.”