Senior Luke Ballmer’s love for rap music proved useful Sunday night when he began his semi-final round at the Speech and Debate State Tournament with a recitation of Snoop Dogg lyrics.
After that round, Ballmer advanced to finals, during which he earned fourth place in the state for national extemporaneous speaking, a category that asks competitors to create a seven-minute speech addressing a given national issue after 30 minutes of preparation. This is the best any member of Foothill’s Speech and Debate team has ever done in any category at the State Tournament.
“I am very happy,” Ballmer said. “But I don’t like to force it into the context of ‘I’m blank best in the state,’ because that’s not what speech and debate – or anything, ever – should be about.”
Ballmer’s unconventional introduction served as a platform to address America’s changing attitudes concerning gun control, citing Snoop Dogg as a “microcosm of societal change,” as evidenced by his new song, “No Guns Allowed.”
The rap tie-in worked in his favor and he scored high enough in the round to break what speech and debate coach Jennifer Kindred calls the “semi-final curse.”
“We’ve been around for 13 years,” she said. “In those 13 years, we’ve had a handful of kids that have made it to semi-finals – and I don’t mean any disrespect to the alumni – but they seem to make it to semi-finals and then they die.”
However, the road to finals was not easy for Ballmer, as he said he struggled in the beginning of the tournament.
“My first two speeches were not of high quality for me and how I normally do,” he said. “But then in my third [speech], I got the “1” which is the highest rank in the round, so I just barely made the break.”
However, as the rounds progressed, Ballmer said he performed better and better, earning 1’s and 2’s from his judges, allowing him to break into the finals.
“The coolest facet about State was that every single round, I improved upon how I had previously done,” he said.
However, despite his increasing scores, Ballmer says he didn’t feel confident before going into the final rounds, and that he didn’t want the rest of his teammates to watch for fear of letting them down.
“I was really worried about not feeling like I belonged in the final room… I was really worried about being in that situation and then just completely cracking,” Ballmer said.
After he finished his final speech, though, Ballmer said he felt like he was on par with his competitors, which he felt was telling of how much he’s grown as a speaker and debater during his four years on the Speech and Debate team.
Senior Adam Braver, who has been on the team with Ballmer for the last four years and also competed at State, said he’s happy that Ballmer ended his high school speech and debate career so well.
“I’m really proud of him [Luke]. I’ve known him for a long time,” Braver said. “And throughout the years he’s done exceptionally well, and the fact that he’s fourth best in the State Tournament in his event means a lot and I’m really happy for him.”
In addition to Braver and Ballmer, four other students competed at the State Tournament this past weekend: freshman Fidelity Ballmer, sophomore Ben Limpich, and juniors Ami Ballmer and Ana Bello.
Three of these competitors, Luke Ballmer, Fidelity Ballmer, and Ana Bello also competed in the national qualifiers earlier this month, which they said was filled with very serious speakers and debaters.
“The other contestants were [intimidating], everyone was on their fancy Macbook pros, typing away and talking emphatically,” freshman Fidelity Ballmer said. “[They] were very business-like.”
Fidelity, Luke and Bello were among the very few public school students at the qualifiers, and were up against competitors with far more funding and much more intense debate programs.
Despite the disadvantage, the Foothill students performed well in each of their categories. Luke placed third in national extemporaneous while Fidelity and Bello placed sixth and third, respectively, in international extemporaneous. They did not qualify for the National Speech Tournament as only the top two contestants were selected to go, however Luke and Bello are the first alternates for the national tournament should another contestant drop out.
“I think that they represented our school really, really well, but the fact that they take it so seriously and try to help each other out as a team, I think that’s why they did so well. They work so hard on getting better and better,” speech and debate coach Anthony Villa said.
After success at the national qualifiers and at the state tournament, Ballmer is happy with the way he’s ended his last year on the speech and debate team.
“That’s probably the best way I could have gone out for how much time I placed into it,” he said. “It definitely feels like an investment well-rewarded.”
Editor’s Note: Staff member Ema Dorsey contributed to the reporting of this article.
Brad • Oct 24, 2013 at 2:51 am
Debate is so fun