The Modesto Junior College Speech and Debate Team brought home the First Place Sweepstakes trophy for community colleges from the Kevin Towhy Memorial Speech Tournament held October 23-25 at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. MJC competed against 28 participating two and four-year institutions, coming in with the top score out of the 14 Northern California community colleges at the tournament.

James Birlew took first in Novice Extemporaneous Speaking, while his brother Richard took 1st place in Open Extemporaneous Speaking. In Debate Richard and Robert Birlew beat University of California, Davis to reach the final round in Open Parliamentary Debate. The Birlews then took second place losing to UC Berkeley in the final round. In Novice Impromptu Mostafa Aniss took 2nd place, while James Birlew, Michelle Yandell, Shannon Lee, and Jessica Medina took the finalist awards. Phillip Azevedo was a finalist in Open Impromptu, and Paris Player took a finalist award in Novice Prose Interpretation.

The MJC team also competed in the San Francisco State University Tournament on September 18-20 and placed third for community colleges. At that tournament Phillip Azevedo placed 1st in Novice Prose Interpretation and was 2nd in Novice Impromptu Speaking. Chris Yerzy placed 3rd in Novice Impromptu Speaking. James Birlew was a finalist in Novice Impromptu Speaking. Josh Ward and Emma Henry were both finalists in Open Impromptu Speaking. While Emma Henry was also a finalist in Open Informative Speaking. Richard Birlew was a finalist in Open Extemporaneous Speaking. Ryan Maharaj took 7th place Speaker Award out of 64 Novice Parliamentary Debaters. Ryan Maharaj, Jessica Medina, Rudy Rivasplata, and Danielle Lawson brought home quarterfinalist awards in Novice Parliamentary Debate.

Richard and Robert Birlew were invited to be the13th alternate team at the University of the Pacific tournament on November 6. As an alternate, they would only compete if a team droped out. However, it was an honor for the debate duo to be invited since MJC was the only community college included on a list with the 12 prestigious four-year universities that competed in this tournament.

At the beginning of October the MJC Speech Team put on one of their two fundraising events for the academic year. Their fall Speech Night performance raised over $7,000 to help supplement the team’s competition and travel expenses. For more information on MJC’s Speech and Debate Teams contact Coach Todd Guy at guyt@mjc.edu or call the MJC Arts, Humanities and Communications Division Office at 575-6081.