In recent years, the Upper St. Clair Forensics team has achieved moderate success at tournaments. However, with the new talents of the Class of 2014 joining the team, USC Forensics is hoping for a new and improved squad. With a few tournaments already over and most of the important tournaments yet to come, the team hopes to achieve success on the local, state, and national levels.

Many people aren’t aware of what the Upper St. Clair Forensics team really is. As a matter of fact, many see “forensics” as the science of criminal investigations (www.washingtonpost.com). Some students don’t even know of the existence of the club!

Junior Matt Snyder agreed, saying, “USC Forensics is relatively unheard of.”

The forensics team is the competitive debating society and team serving Upper St. Clair High School. As a member of the Pennsylvania High School Speech League, the Catholic Forensics League, and the National Forensics League, the school’s team competes on a variety of different levels (www.nflonline.org).

Overall, freshman debater Ben Stalnaker summed it best by saying, “Forensics is an intellectual wonderland.”

The season typically starts with non-competitive, learning tournaments known as “festivals” (www.forensicscommunity.com).  The team then proceeds to attend local tournaments from December to February. Then, qualifier tournaments, which enable students to attend regional and national tournaments, take place. Finally, the culmination of the season lies in state and national tournaments.

While last year the team had nine students go to the state tournament and one student, Brent Heard, attended the main national tournament, the National Forensics League tournament, this year could prove to be more fruitful. Freshman debaters Stalnaker, Younos Manfoud, and Sydney Turnwald have been successful so far, adding to the wins of the top team of Evan Pye and Mahen Seniveratne.

Furthermore, on the speech side, John Kulp, Brent Heard, Catherine Wertz, Eva Roy, and Alberto Escobar have shown their excellence. A combination of the debate and speech teams earned the St. Clair Forensics team the Sweepstakes Award for the top aggregate score for any team. For the team to experience such a great victory so early in the year is virtually unheard of and indicates more success to come.

Speech captain and national quarterfinalist Brent Heard said, “Sweepstakes are an impressive award, especially for a team of our modest size. It’s a testament to both the skill and dedication of our speakers and debaters.”

Assistant principal Mr. Angelo agreed that the forensics team is hopeful, saying that, “We have always been proud of the accomplishments of the forensics team, so we have high hopes for this year.”