ETSU students place at Pellissippi Fifth Annual Tennessee Valley Tournament

On Feb. 25-26, speech and debate team members Brooke Hornberger and Ipinoluwa Akintola represented ETSU and placed at the Pellissippi Fifth Annual Tennessee Valley Tournament.

“We were exhausted and just ready to do our best, so we did not expect this success,” said Hornberger.

The tournament took place at Pellissippi State Community College’s Hardin Valley campus 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on both days. Hornberger and Akintola competed against students from many different institutions throughout the Southeast.

Both members received first-place awards in different categories; Hornberger finished 1^st in Dramatic Interpretation (DI) and Prose while Akintola finished 1^st in Impromptu. Hornberger’s placements qualified her to advance to the American Forensics Association National Speech Tournament, which will take place April 1-3 in Santa Ana, California.

Hornberger, a senior, is president of ETSU’s Speech and Debate Team and has been a member each of the four years she has attended the university. She participates mostly in speech categories rather than debate.

“We have a really passionate team this year as we are trying to grow the speech side of things,” said Hornberger. “So far, we have had passionate students come in and work really hard to reach their goals.”

She attributes the team’s success to a combination of eagerness, persistence and dedication. However, the team’s love for speech and debate goes far beyond their success. She boasts about coaches Laughton Messmer and Donna Taylor for always encouraging them to have fun and not simply compete to win.

Hornberger has been competing for over six years, and her favorite part is being able to speak about personal experiences through specific topics. For her dramatic interpretation, she focused on the lives of Asian adoptees. Being one herself allowed her to relate to others with similar experiences.

Being on the speech and debate team has provided Hornberger with some unique opportunities, such as her career path. She discovered ETSU’s Department of Communication and Performance after joining the team and decided to change her major. After graduating this spring, she will be going to graduate school for communication studies with a focus on adoption research.

“Overall, speech and debate has led me into the educational pathway and career pathway that I want,” said Hornberger.

The team meets on Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. in the Culp Center and welcomes anyone that wants to join. For more information, visit their Instagram page @speechanddebateatetsu.