OCC prepares for speech tournament

Matt Grenert

ORANGE COAST COLLEGE -- After winning its third straight state title

last week, Orange Coast College’s speech and debate team won’t have much

time to enjoy the victory.

The national tournament for community colleges starts April 9 in

Jacksonville, Fla., and no one is expecting an easy ride.

“Though we’ve done very well at the national level, the title has

eluded us for the past 11 years,” said coach Georgie Monahan. “The team

has worked very hard and our hopes are high after winning the state

tournament. It is good momentum.”

Over the past two decades, OCC has put together the best national

tournament record of any community college team, winning the title five

times and recording seven second-place finishes, four third-place

finishes and a pair of fourth-place finishes.

This year, they’ll be going up against stiff competition with a fairly

inexperienced team that has just three students returning from last year.

More than 500 students from 75 different schools will be there,

including Mt. San Antonio College, of Walnut -- “The team to beat,”

according to Monahan.

Other strong competitors will be Illinois’ College of DuPage and

Moorpark College, the team OCC beat by two and a half points in the state

tournament.

At the national competition, each team will be allowed 14 students.

The students will compete in 11 different individual events and two team

categories.

The key to victory is clear to team members.

“The only thing we [the team] can do now is just practice, practice,

practice for the national tournament,” said Adam Navarro of Costa Mesa,

who received the state tournament’s Fricker/Keeling Award for best

speaker. “The one thing that I am afraid of is not getting the reaction

that I want out of the audience, I want them to laugh and remember me and

not feel that I wasted their time.”

Among the team’s presentations, Nick Sais of Costa Mesa will recite a

humorous speech, “Pimping in America” and Alison Hartson of Fountain

Valley and Heidi Mueller of Costa Mesa will do a duo interpretation on a

play by David Rush called “Life is only 7 points.”

“The team is just a bunch of good-looking kids who love to preform,”

said coach Christopher DeSurra. “We all help each other out, I guess that

is what makes our team so special, they are the closest group of people

that I have ever known.”

DeSurra will be taking the team over entirely after the national

tournament, which will be the last for Monahan, who is stepping down.

“I want to spend more time with my two teenage boys, this is why I am

not going to Florida with the team,” she said.

“Georgie,” as she likes to be called, will continue to teach speech

and debate at OCC.

“I will remember this season because the team is just so much fun,”

she said. “I am just so excited.”