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The Needham Speech and Debate team put an exclamation point on the regular season with a third-place finish at the Massachusetts Speech and Congress Championships on April 7 at Acton-Boxborough High School.
Sophomore Annie Stein paced several award-winners by earning the state championship in Declamation with her performance of Shonda Rhimses’s “My Year of Saying Yes to Everything.” Those who joined her on the final stage included the multiple reading team of senior Corey Jacobson, junior Shayan Raza, and sophomores Simone Hernandez, John Lively, Hannah Warn, and Stein. Needham was third in multiple reading for the second consecutive year, this time performing "That Day in September.” Jacobson was also third in radio broadcasting. Senior and Academic All-American Jackson Segal earned tin in two different individual events - she was within a "picket fence" of firsts in extemporaneous speaking leading to a third place overall finish event to go with a sixth in impromptu - while senior Mariah Freedman was fifth in group discussion. Segal’s final round speech in extemporaneous speaking answered the question "Will the changes by Gov. Baker to the Massachusetts State Police help restore public trust in the department?”
Honorable mentions were earned in declamation by Hernandez and ninth grader Abby Hynes. Hernandez missed advancing to finals by one speaker point out of three hundred possible. Double entry awards for excellence across two distinct events were earned by Hernandez, Jacobson, Segal and Stein. Some of those who added to the overall Needham sweepstakes score were declaimers Sasha Rieser (freshman) and sophomore Kelsey Rondini (who rushed from National History Day States that morning to take part), the three duo teams of senior Emma Garber and sophomore Izzy Lockhart, Hernandez and Warn, and Raza and Stein, impromptu speaker junior Raymond Shen, sophomore Henry Huvos and senior Garber, who earned two first place ranks on the day. Other strong sweepstakes contributors were orators Raza and senior Sarah Sylvan, junior poetry reader Maya Osman, radio broadcaster Sylvan, and Congressional Debaters senior Conor Hynes, junior Maddie Mollerus, and sophomore Matt Peljovich. Jacobson and Sylvan finalized for the second consecutive year. Parents Brian Jacobson and John Sylvan, along with Rene Hernandez and John Lively, judged and were in attendance during the day.
Coach Paul Wexler said the strong team performance, on the heels of a fourth-place state debate sweepstakes performance last week, was due to hard work and energy on the part of the whole team, and noted the strong senior leadership on the team, along with the coaching staff and volunteers.
The Rockets are now preparing to attend National Speech and Debate Associaton Nationals in Fort Lauderdale in June and the Grand National tournament in Washington, DC, on Memorial Day weekend. Those willing to contribute to the team’s attendance may donate at the team’s EDCO fundraising page, https://needham-high.ed.co/needham-speech-and-debate-team.
