Many people have a fear of public speaking. In fact, according to an *article from the University of Florida, between 72% and 75% of people have anxiety associated with it. Not this group of students though! Members of the OLSH forensics team, as well as students from many different schools throughout the region and country, get up on Saturday mornings, bright and early, put on their best professional fit, and head to a different high school to speak in front of other people. Events offered at forensics tournaments include both speech and debate events, but the OLSH forensics team is mainly made up of speech competitors. This year, the team is doing very well, having students place at almost every tournament that the team attends. At the state level, the OLSH team had 6 students compete at the PHSSL tournament, all freshmen and sophomores! The team had an impressive two entries make the final round, Sophia Muoio ‘26 and Bridget Fogle ‘26 – 4th place in duo interpretation, and Jenna Nastal ‘26 – 6th place in storytelling, and a semi-finalist, Danica Nauman ‘27. She placed 11th in prose. OLSH Forensics participates in two leagues with national competitions, CFL (Catholic Forensics League) and NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association). 5 students qualified for CFL Nationals this year, which is a record breaker for the OLSH team. OLSH students have been competing at the state and national competitions consistently since 2015!
OLSH has had a forensics team at various points in its history, but when Mrs. Cerchiaro started working at the school in 2004, there hadn’t been a team since the late 1990s. Mrs. Cerchiaro has been involved in forensics since she was in high school, competing in many different events. She started coaching because she believes that speech and debate is one of the most beneficial activities in high school. “It prepares you for literally any career and for college success,” she says. Mrs. Cerchiaro also loves to see the students build relationships with each other and with students from other schools, even ones that they compete against. This year, the OLSH team has 14 members: 3 freshmen, 7 sophomores, 3 juniors, and 1 senior. Mrs. Cerchiaro is so proud of their team spirit, dedication, and willingness to try new things.
Some of the team members shared their experiences competing on the OLSH team. Many of the current team members joined because they did forensics in middle school and they wanted to get better at public speaking. Meghan Cavender, the lone senior and only debater, actually started out doing a speech event. She said, “Junior year I wanted to try something new and branch out into the debate side. I chose Congressional Debate because it was the one event that I felt I would be the most confident in while still being out of my comfort zone.” Meghan said that doing speech and debate for all four of her high school years has really helped her confidence and ability to take feedback and use it to better her performance.
Eve Amendola ‘26 shared that she loves being on the team because of the friendships she’s made through the activity. She finds her category, Original Oratory (OO for the speech kids), to be very interesting because “every competitor is telling part of their story in a different way.” “You’re all opening up to each other in each round about something personal to your life,” she shared. It’s a great category to learn about a range of different topics. Eve went to the CFL National tournament last year and is going again this year. She said getting to experience that was really rewarding for her and can’t wait for this year’s tournament.
Bridget Fogle, another sophomore member, just joined the team this year and has already accomplished so much. She and Sophia Muoio qualified to the state tournament through the bid system (they placed high enough at tournaments so they auto-qualified) and the duo is also going to the CFL National tournament. Bridget wants to continue to build her relationships within Speech and Debate and continue to grow in confidence with her speaking. One of her favorite memories from this year was doing Impromptu Duo with Sophia because it was fun and rewarding, “not to mention it was very funny to perform unscripted.”
Danica Nauman ‘27 and Juliet Price ‘27 also shared some of their experiences from freshmen forensics. Both Danica and Juliet have enjoyed their experiences so far on the team. They both are excited to try new things next year and keep growing in the activity. They really appreciate the support of the older girls in helping them develop their pieces and just being able to enjoy time together at tournaments.
If anyone is interested in joining the OLSH forensics team or wants some more information about it, reach out to anyone on the team or Mrs. Cerchiaro at jcerchiaro@olsh.org!
*https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/orangeco/2022/01/21/public-speaking-getting-beyond-the-fear-through-the-three-ps/#:~:text=We%20have%20all%20heard%20the,the%20population%20fears%20public%20speaking.
