The Del Mar College Vocal Vikings Forensic Squad’s competition season has started back up and is in full swing.
From Oct. 18-20 and Nov. 1-3, the Vocal Vikings competed in their first two speech and debate tournaments for the academic year called the Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio at San Antonio College and The Fall Texas Intercollegiate Forensic Association (TIFA) in Lubbock.
“The girls had their very first IPDA [International Public Debate Association] rounds,” Marjorie Bryant-Sparrow, the Vocal Vikings assistant coach said.
Debate has multiple bracket rounds that determine who carries on to the next round.
“Everybody won at least one, which was great,” Bryant-Sparrow said. “That’s a good confidence booster plus it helps them understand what an IPDA round really feels like without it being theory.”
Bella Mendez, a Vocal Viking and mechanical engineering major, won her first award at TIFA, winning second place in Novice Informative Speaking
“I really enjoyed making friends with everyone and traveling to new places,” Mendez said. “Performing and getting better is a lot of fun too.”
Mendez was really surprised that she won. “I recommend this to shy people. In the beginning I was shy and didn’t really talk a lot and it really helped me get out of my shell,”
Chloe Castillo, captain of the Vocal Vikings placed seventh in the Program Oral Interpretation category.
“All of them are first timers except for Chloe,” Sarah Contreras, director of the Vocal Vikings Forensic Squad said “But that’s really misleading because even though Chloe was on the team last year, she’s trying new events so some of the things she’s doing she did before, be she’s also branching out. So, she’s new in certain events that she’s competing in.”
According to Castillo, she felt a lot of anxiety since she was competing in some events for the first time but mainly excited to gain more experience and take a new team to San Antonio. “I am also very proud of the team since they did better than they thought they would do and are excited to keep competing in the spring,” Castillo said.
