Best of the Best

After clinching their fifth straight Massachusetts state championship and their seventh in eight years, Catholic Memorial’s Speech & Debate team traveled to Chicago in May for the Catholic Nationals (its 40^th trip to this event since its founding). It was the first of two contests where the nation’s best would compete for top bragging rights.

 

At Catholic Nationals, the duo team of Donovan Burke and Jack Holland were quarter finalists. In Drama, perennial gamer, Patrick Blomberg, was a semi-finalist, Samson Persson was 6^th in the nation in Oral Interpretation, sophomore Parker Kempf placed fifth in Declamation and the duo team of Boensel and Pappas were third in the country. Overall, CM placed in the top five of 417 schools making them Co-National Champions for the third time.

 

In June, the seven senior members of the team along with head coach Br. Anthony Cavet and assistant coaches Tony Kandlaft ’15 and Ryan Julian ’18, traveled to Des Moines, IA to battle in the National Speech & Debate Association Tournament. They traveled 1,300 miles to act and debate in hopes of cementing the legacy of this year’s team being one of the best in program history. And they didn’t disappoint.

 

Samson Persson, competing in Prose, and the duo teams of Brendan Jolley and Owen Galvin, and Alex Pappas with Chris Boensel all dropped after preliminary rounds to compete in supplemental events. Patrick Blomberg, however, continued along with his main event of Programmed Oral Interpretation before finishing his run as a semi-finalist. Sam Gonser, competing in Big Questions Debate, held an undefeated 6-0 streak until finishing as an octa-finalist. In supplemental events, Samson Persson and Brendan Jolley both finished as finalists, in Prose and Expository, respectively. Their head coach concluded that, “the greatest year in the history of CM forensics is over.” And so it was with the team finishing this run with their best ever performance.

 

Such a tremendous result speaks to the class of 2023-24’s dedication and practice to the craft as documented in the documentary video, The Forensics Factory. Click the link to watch. Catholic Memorial | College Prep School in Boston, MA