Courtesy of Matthew Nadel

Communications junior Matthew Nadel holds his first place award for his original oratory “Get my good side”. “When they called my name at the awards ceremony, I literally collapsed on the stage and started crying. I couldn’t believe [I won],” Nadel said.

Members of Dreyfoos’ Speech and Debate team competed at Blue Key, an annual debate tournament held at the University of Florida from Oct. 30-31. Although the competition was challenging, four team members advanced to finals with communications junior  Matthew Nadel taking first place for his Original Oratory titled, “Get My Good Side.”

“It was a very intense weekend, with preliminary, quarterfinals, semifinals, and final rounds, but as I advanced, I got more and more excited and starting thinking that I could actually win this,” Nadel said. “My final round was my best performance of the weekend. When they called my name at the awards ceremony, I literally collapsed on the stage and started crying. I couldn’t believe [I won].”

Blue Key motivated speech and debate members to push themselves to reach their goals and challenged them to become better at their individual events.

“I wanted to compete at Blue Key because last year we had to write five goals for the next year in our debate class and one of mine was to break at a national circuit tournament, more specifically Blue Key,” communications sophomore Maya Levkovitz said. “I benefited from Blue Key because the tournament really helped me gain confidence. I also learned so much from a lot of very experienced and talented debaters that I competed against, and I found out what it feels like to be apart of an extremely supportive and successful team.”

Vocal freshman Luke Tillitski and and theatre freshman Gillian Beer started their careers as Dreyfoos debaters by attending Blue Key, something that is not common for first year students. Both attended to expand their experience and give them a stronger connection to the team.

“I wanted to attend to bond with the team, learn from some of the best, and size myself up with some of the best congressional debaters in the country,” Tillitski said. “I became much more efficient at preparing [my speeches].”

Overall, the team did extremely well for the level of competition they faced. Ten students made it past preliminary rounds, which is incredible considering the team’s small size.

“Everyone did amazing,” Levkovitz said. “I think everyone benefited from attending and being able to be a part of such a talented group makes me so proud to be apart of it.”