Tradition of success earns the speech and debate team at LSC-North Harris the title of nation’s best

Lone Star College North Harris News

Published on: May 09, 2014
The Lone Star College-North Harris competitive speech and debate team continued their tradition of success by winning the 2014 Silvia Mariners Perpetual Sweepstakes Award at this years Phi Rho Pi National Speech Tournament. LSC-North Harris is only the third Texas school to win the award since its inception in 1970.

The Silvia Mariners Perpetual Sweepstakes Award is an ongoing prize, given each year to the community college team with the highest point total over the history of Phi Rho Pis annual tournaments.
LSC-North Harris team, which has a history of achievement at the local, regional and national levels, earned 112.5 points at this years tournament to secure the honor. Having won, the LSC-North Harris speech teams point total will now reset to zero next year.
For Wade Hescht, current team coach and a former LSC-North Harris student himself, the award has special meaning.
Winning the Mariner Sweepstakes evokes a double sense of pride for me, said Wade Hescht, director of forensics at LSC-North Harris. The points accumulated to win this award not only include my years of coaching, but also my years as a student competitor for LSC-North Harris."
Hescht, a professor at LSC-North Harris for nearly 20 years, was also an active member of the speech and debate team while attending the college. Now, along with the rest of the coaching team, professors Jonathan Stansbury, Dave Gaer and Casey Garcia, they have developed one of the nations best forensic teams.  
In addition to Mariners Award, the team won numerous recognitions throughout the season, including being named the 2014 Phi Rho Pi Regional Champions, the 2014 Texas Community College Forensic Associations State Champions and the 2014 Texas Intercollegiate Forensic Associations State Champions (for two-year and four-year schools). 
Once again we had a very talented group of competitors who represented the college wonderfully, said Hescht. Its amazing to see how far we have come, and ...

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