On Feb. 8, 2025, the Walpole High School Speech and Debate team travelled to Burlington, Mass. to compete in the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) Massachusetts Combined Qualifier. The competition, which features teams from around the state, was a final chance for Walpole competitors to qualify for the NCFL Grand National Speech and Debate Tournament in Chicago, Ill. if they placed within the top three at the event. Ultimately, the team came out having achieved their goal with two of their members qualifying themselves for the national tournament.
To qualify for nationals, a competitor is required to place within the top six in their event. At the competition, Walpole competed in a plethora of events ranging from Dramatic Interpretation to Debate. The two competitors who qualified, Sophomore Aaron Arora and Senior Bhakti Belle, competed in Declamation and Dramatic Interpretation respectively. Many other competitors nearly qualified for nationals, making it to the runoff round, a round for breaking ties between close competitors. Belle won her event, while Arora qualified through runoff, which an extra round that is done in order to break ties. Belle also contributed to the team by serving as the Speech President, playing a key role in leadership along with Debate President Sarah Mukkuzhi and head coach Emily Murray.
“I had to make myself available to underclassmen and provide them with guidance that I also once needed as a freshman,” Belle said.
Since the beginning of the school year, the Speech and Debate team has worked to improve in order to achieve their goal of going to nationals. For example, throughout the early weeks of the season, many new members were convinced to join the team, leading to a much more passionate atmosphere as the newcomers began to learn more about the activity. Early in the season, the team had to work through struggles to memorize their speeches as well as for duos to perfect their coordination. As the season continued the team became more cohesive, ultimately resulting in their successes.
“After everybody went to the first tournament, they really liked it so there was just more passion after that,” Arora said. “We’ve been more involved as a team, more locked in as the season went.”
Now that Arora and Belle have achieved their season long aspiration of going to nationals, they are beginning to set goals for the competition itself. Arora hopes to make it as far as possible, hopefully getting to the octofinal at the very least. Belle is also hoping to make it to the preliminary round. The national tournament in Chicago is slated to take place on Memorial Day weekend, so Walpole’s two qualifiers have three months to prepare for their event.
