The speech and debate team has always been an entirely student-run organization, impromptu committee officer Henry Hu said, creating challenges for the club as they struggled to succeed. However, recent changes in the club signal a brighter future for the speech and debate team, speech committee leader, Hu, a sophomore, said.

With the addition of coach Adrian Caeser, Hu said the team will see improvement in their members and may qualify for state or national competitions.

Caeser, who is currently a CMS teacher, has lots of experience with speech and debate, Hu said. He did speech and debate as a high school student and has coached at various other teams.

The team’s main goal with a new coach is to gain better insight into different strategies and more niche areas of competition, Hu said.

Speech and debate president Sarah Yun said when she joined speech and debate, membership was very low, but she said that was because all tournaments were online. However, Yun said with the return of in-person tournaments, the club has seen a boost in membership.

The club officers are putting a heavy focus on social media advertisement to build their club’s membership, but the greatest way to build membership is to do well in tournaments and hope their success draws new members, Hu said. 

Original speech committee leader Evangeline Park said the club has been helpful to students looking for a way to express themselves while gaining a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“The club gives students a platform for them to express their opinions and thoughts,” Park, a sophomore, said. “We have a lot of publications at school like The Epitaph and the yearbook that give students this ability, but speech is a way for them to do it through their voice and actually in front of an audience.” 

With the future looking more hopeful than ever before, Hu said they look forward to the growth of speech and debate, and to encourage students to join the community. 

“There is something for everyone in speech and debate,” Yun said. “It has helped me grow, both in confidence and in public speaking skills. It’s a valuable thing for anyone to do.”