Forensics team on top
Patrick Sadjack
Issue date: 11/12/09 Section: News
You stand in front of a group of people. Numerous pairs of eyes are directed towards you, expecting a mistake, a slip of the tongue. You get nervous, start to forget what you wanted to say and finally start to sweat. Public speaking is something that scares most people. The Pacific University Forensics Team seems to be impervious to this fear.
Competitive speech, or forensics, offers a wide-range of events in several different genres for students to participate in. There are three speaking genres, interpretation events, public address events and limited preparation events. Competitive speech, or forensics, offers a wide-range of events in several different genres for students to participate in.
The Forensics Team is off to a great start in the season having been successful in their performances at the last three tournaments.
"We did excellent in the last three meets. We have a wonderful squad that is willing to improve and is pushing themselves," said Assistant Director of Forensics Mark Truax.
Although the speech team lost two teammates to graduation at the end of last semester, they managed to recruit new members.
"We prepare for the loss of people and move forward. By trying to recruit people at Pacific and students from high schools that plan on going to Pacific, we manage to get possible team members to join the squad as soon as possible," said Truax.
Integrating these new members and preparing them for the tournaments is maybe the most challenging task for coaches. Training sessions are set up by the students in coordination with the coaches once or twice a week.
"We have individual training. At the beginning we try to evaluate what type of experience the person has. Then we decide together how much training the person needs," said Truax.
The interaction within the group is also an important factor when you have to spend a lot of free time with the same people.
"We are a very close group. People spend a lot of time together during tournaments, so bonding between them happens naturally," said Truax.
Competitive speech, or forensics, offers a wide-range of events in several different genres for students to participate in. There are three speaking genres, interpretation events, public address events and limited preparation events. Competitive speech, or forensics, offers a wide-range of events in several different genres for students to participate in.
The Forensics Team is off to a great start in the season having been successful in their performances at the last three tournaments.
"We did excellent in the last three meets. We have a wonderful squad that is willing to improve and is pushing themselves," said Assistant Director of Forensics Mark Truax.
Although the speech team lost two teammates to graduation at the end of last semester, they managed to recruit new members.
"We prepare for the loss of people and move forward. By trying to recruit people at Pacific and students from high schools that plan on going to Pacific, we manage to get possible team members to join the squad as soon as possible," said Truax.
Integrating these new members and preparing them for the tournaments is maybe the most challenging task for coaches. Training sessions are set up by the students in coordination with the coaches once or twice a week.
"We have individual training. At the beginning we try to evaluate what type of experience the person has. Then we decide together how much training the person needs," said Truax.
The interaction within the group is also an important factor when you have to spend a lot of free time with the same people.
"We are a very close group. People spend a lot of time together during tournaments, so bonding between them happens naturally," said Truax.
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