As February approaches, the Forensics team had to prepare for their first required meet in Montello on Feb. 21. There are two optional meets that kids can go to before then to help prepare them for the required meet. 

  “We typically meet every other week or so to help prepare for tournaments,” Forensics Head Coach Nicole King said.  

Senior Sophie Ryf can only prepare so much. In her radio broadcast event she gets the topic when she arrives at the meet and has thirty minutes to write out her broadcast and then present. 

“Radio is an impromptu event, so I don’t know the content I’m going to have. I have done a practice run of how an event would go,” Ryf said.

Although there is not much preparation that Ryf can do, for senior Luyen Pham, it is quite the opposite. 

“I have been working on my piece for a while already. I started to write the speech and met with coaches to get their feedback. Once the speech is completed I have to practice and time myself to make sure that I’m not under or over the time limit. Now, it will be just practicing and memorizing the speech,” Pham said. 

Pham and Ryf have now found themselves enjoying forensics and overcoming the fear of public speaking. 

“As a non-native English speaker, public speaking is one of my weaknesses. At first, I joined Forensics with the hope that I will be able to overcome my public speaking fear. However, I eventually fell in love with it,” Pham said. 

Ryf has really found herself enjoying her radio broadcast category, with the little preparation and the fun experience.

“I really enjoy my category which is radio. It’s 30 minutes of prep to create a 5-minute radio show,” Ryf said.

As for the whole team, they are looking forward to the tournaments to be in person. Due to COVID-19 last year many tournaments had to be online. 

“Last year, due to COVID-19, everything was virtual. However, as of right now, we will be able to perform in person this year. I’m excited and looking forward to a successful season,” Pham said.