The anxiety inducing minutes before you go on stage. The final minutes to make alterations to your speech. The final minutes panic and adrenaline. The clock continues to count down the seconds until you present on stage.
For the first time in 59 years, LPC’s forenics team, the Talk Hawks, competed in the large school division, and secured two huge wins at the Nationwide Phi Rho Pi National Championship Speech Tournament in Washington D.C. Most community college speech teams have fewer members than comparative four-years, so this is a feat for Las Positas. The team competed with 15 members against universities like El Camino College, Mt. San Antonia College and Orange Coast College.
And despite it being their first time competing in the division for nationals, the Talk Hawks took home the Bronze Medal Sweepstakes Award for Overall Tournament Performance and the Silver Medal Sweepstakes Award in Individual Events.
Tim Heisler, one of the four Talk Hawks coaches was elated at how well the team performed this year. According to him, there were three key components that contributed to their success.
“Good people, teamwork and good coaching. We had talent AND camaraderie. They were a team, a true team,” Heisler said.
The forensics team also competed out of country in the 2023 International Forensics Association’s Championship Tournament in Tokyo, Japan. The Talk Hawks beat out Vanderbilt, University of Alabama, the United States Air Force Academy, Marshall University and Point Loma Nazarene University. Winning 6th place overall in the competition.
Mikiah Aubert is the bronze medal winner for informative speaking and the gold medal winner for impromptu speaking at nationals. She’s a second-year communications major transferring next fall, which makes this semester her last season on the forensics team. Though her time on forensics was short, it was nothing short of remarkable.
“I didn’t believe them when they told me, ‘This is gonna change your life,’you know. A lot of people say that. But this is actually something that changed my life,” Aubert said.
Aubert learned she had a talent for speech. Something she never would have known if her counselor hadn’t suggested she join the Talk Hawks. They both agreed it would be perfect for her because she is a communications major.
“I always joked, ‘I was born to communicate’ and this semester it kind of came true,” Aubert said.
She goes on to detail her first speech tournament. She won first place on the first day for extemporary, and an additional first place for impromptu and two third place wins in the extemporary and prose categories on the second day of competition.
Aubert said, “After that, I was like, ‘Whoa, am I good at this’? And so then I just kept doing it. And here I am.”
Between the west and east coasts of America, Aubert’s most memorable moment was her extemporaneous speech in New York. Extemporaneous speeches are where a participant chooses one of three topics to speak about at the competition. The participant is given 30 minutes the day of the competition to prepare a thirty minute speech about their selected topic.
“Both final rounds I got the whole crowd to erupt. It was like a SNL skit. I went as the closer on Sunday, (and) the people before me were really good. I decided to be myself and do what I had to do. I didn’t think I was that funny, but it affirmed to me that I was!” Aubert said.
Her speech was about the upcoming 2024 presidential elections. She shared her opinions and predictions about who was to be elected for the republican and democratic parties. The speech earned her 1st Place days one and two of the competition.
Aubert’s achievements this season are impressive, not just for a rookie, but for any speech and debate team. Her teammates Leah Ananuevo and Anna Wolde had a noteworthy win as well.
Ananuevo and Wold had an unorthodox speech to put it simply. “Jim brought us together since he knew we were both singers and was like, ‘I have an idea. It opens with Fat Bottomed Girls in harmony,’” Leah Ananuevo, second-year music major, recounts. “And I was like, Okay, so that’s how it started.”
It was an “Interpretation of Literature” speech about butts. The cultural impact of butts. It had singing, harmonies and audience participation with the historical and cultural connotations of how butts became a staple in pop culture, all molded into one.
“I didn’t realize that until along the way. When I was deep into speech. I was like, oh, this is a performance. Because I was realizing during these tournaments, you’re going in and out of rooms, listening to a bunch of speeches, but they’re all little performances” Ananuevo said.
Her experience in theater arts and performance gave her an edge in the competition. The duo’s creativity in crowd involvement and song choices is what bolstered them to the number one spot in nationals and a gold medal for their Duo Interpretation of Literature.
“I think it was my best performance ever. That final round, the room was packed, and the energy was up,” Ananuevo said. “We just gave it our all, it was magic”Ananuevo said.
“Every time that somebody broke, the whole team kind of rallied around them. And (the) awards (ceremony) was just wild,” Sean McGory, returning Las Positas student said. “It’s hard not to kind of lose your cool.”
They really do think of themselves as a team. Despite the fact presenting is a solo activity, they collaborate closely with each other to become the best they can be.
“I think a lot of times, like groups in sports where you’re doing these very individual activities, you don’t really feel the need to bond with people. but through even just peer coaching or even just time spent in the forensics room, maybe doing other stuff together, it creates a bond” said Mackenzie Mcdonald, middle college communications major.
“This was a special year. I’ve been coaching here since 93, and this is one of the only teams that I’ve seen that has been this, awesome,” Heisler said.
Brijae Boyd is a staff writer for the Express.
