Coach's Corner

Coach's Corner

The Central Catholic speech and debate team has gotten off to a roaring start in 2021. After the long, strongly disliked, all virtual season, we finally went to in person tournaments for the first time since March 2020. On Saturday, November 6th, the team traveled up to Penn State Behrend, to compete in the M&M (McDowell and Mercyhurst) Invitational. The boys were clearly excited and fired up to finally being back to in person competition, as they absolutely dominated the competition. They took first overall in both speech and debate sweepstakes, as well as winning overall sweepstakes. It was a loud and happy bus ride back to Central.

Since then, we have done some in person tournaments at Moon, North Catholic, and even traveled down to Parkersburg West Virginia. On the speech side, junior DI star Amari Smith has placed 1st in every tournament he has competed in, except for one, where he placed 2nd. Junior Xavier Rameriez has also found success in his new event of extemp, finishing in the top 3 of every tournament. Seniors, Declan Reily, Fio Pampena, and Dom Passafiume, have led by example, and have placed several times this year as well. Finally, sophomore phenom Luka DePasquale, has been a star in the poetry, placing first and second in almost every competition this year as well.

On the debate side, the team has been lead by 2021 Policy state champions Oscar Heller and Parker Osth, our new PF A team of Liam Carnahan and Peter Elder, as well as our 2021 Lincoln Douglas state quarterfinalist Eric Fredette. These guys have all placed in every tournament they have competed in this year, and look to continue to lead the way for our younger debate guys. They seem to be doing a great job, as our sophomore PF team of Michael Murphy and Michael Brienza continue to do well for their first year, including a 1st place finish at the Pittsburgh Winter Invitational in early December. Freshman phenom Santino Balistrieri has stormed onto the LD scene and has had unbelievable success for a first year debater, including a 2nd place finish this past weekend at North Catholic, and dominating the JV field in Parkersburg WV, going 5-0. He is 12-1 in his past 3 tournaments.

As you can see, the team is off to a fast start. We look forward to what is to come in the spring, especially in March when we go to national qualifiers and states. We hope that by the time comes in May for our reunion, you all get to walk into Central and see a big team state championship trophy.

—Mike DePasquale    
CCFS Head Coach