Butte College
News Announcement

Speech and Debate Team Wins Big En Route to National Tournament

Butte College's speech and debate team is celebrating a series of impressive wins on their way to the upcoming national tournament. The collegiate forensics team recently took second place overall at the Hornet Cup tournament hosted by CSU, Sacramento, beating out two and 4-year schools from California and Nevada. The team brought back nine individual awards, including multiple first-place trophies.

This success follows their outstanding performance at the Northern California Championship in February, where they won seven awards. These accolades are a testament to the hard work and dedication of the team members, who have been tirelessly preparing for the upcoming national tournament. 

"Our team has been working day in and day out to succeed. These recent victories have given us a wave of confidence going into nationals," said Jose Sanchez Martinez, a third-semester competitor on the team. 

Next, the team will travel to Washington, DC, from April 10 – 15, for the Phi Rho Pi National Forensic Organization tournament. Phi Rho Pi Nationals is the largest tournament exclusively for 2-year colleges in the country. This year, 54 colleges from across the US will compete.

The team members who will be competing at the national tournament are Alyssa Sanders, Shawn Brannan, Jose Sanchez Martinez, Madison Gillen, and Millie Kinnamont. Between them, they will compete in 16 different events, showcasing their skills in various speech events, including informative, impromptu and persuasive speaking, as well as performance categories such as prose and dramatic interpretation. All five of Butte College's competitors will be transferring to 4-year colleges this fall. 

"I'm so proud of the success these students have had so far. All of them balance work, other classes, and traveling weekends to compete," said the team's coach, Shannan Troxel-Andreas. "Butte is constantly going up against much bigger schools with much more resources, but we've held our own."

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