MANVILLE: Debate club competes for first time

    The Manville High School speech and debate team has been in the making since advisor Michael Forte formed the club in 2009. Slowly but surely the membership has grown.
   Every meeting the group practiced and honed their debating skills all in order to prepare themselves for the competitions to come. That moment came on Dec. 8 at the Summit High School annual Hilltopper Holiday Classic Forensics Tournament, when a full Manville attended to argue an issue pro and con four times.
    Mr. Forte and six members of the team (junior Bethany Trilone, junior Julian Stephenson, freshman Zack Spencer, freshman Billy Caswell, sophomore Brielle Formanowski and sophomore Amanda Sullivan) worked hard to prepare speeches and rebuttals on topics related to whether the United States government should prefer tax increases over spending cuts.
    They competed against 20 other schools, including other Somerset County schools Bridgewater-Raritan and Ridge High School. Four of the teammates debated in public forum while two prepared speeches for the oratory portion of the competition.
    The National Forensic League is a non-profit honor society created to recognize high school students in speech and debate. More than 100,000 students, in 2,800 high schools nationwide build their communication, leadership, cognitive and presentational skills participating in forensics competitions. The league awards $200,000 in annual scholarships.