It’s five in the morning and a group of giggling FSU students are wearing pantyhose. Layered on a blends of polyester and cotton, spun into pant-suits and skirt-suits, each colorful and crisp. Black leather pumps, diamond earrings and the lines of a speech on repeat in theirs head remind them, delirious with sleeplessness, that today is the day they have a voice.
At Florida State, the forensics team is leaving for another tournament, another weekend and another title. Ranked 1st in the state of Florida and 19th in the United States, FSU’s forensics team is a force to be reckoned with. Led by coaches Nick Thompson and Kevin Waters, the team is varied in all aspects except talent. Forensics encompasses a veritable smorgasbord of speaking events such as Dramatic Interpretation (DI), After Dinner Speaking (ADS), Poetry, Prose, Impromptu and Extemporaneous Speaking, among others. Competitors speak in several events, giving each performance in numerous preliminary rounds before “breaking” into finals. Coaches and faculty members judge the students, taking silent and intimidating notes as they absorb the rhetoric presented to them. Students write, memorize and practice for weeks, putting in hours of work and coaching time in addition to their academic commitments. Tournaments occur every weekend with teams sometimes traveling across the country to acquire “legs” for national qualifications.
Forensics is hard. It is intimidating, draining and frustratingly subjective. But it isn’t the shining plastic trophies or the promise of a national title to garnish a grad school application that makes it worth the time – it’s the people. The team sings along to a playlist they’ve created together. Thompson and Waters navigate the old Florida roads, lovingly being called Mama and Papa by the college students – each less than 10 years younger than them – in their charge. They warm up with gestations and yelling and tongue twisters, shouting in the dark to summon the Goddess of Speech with African ju-ju tongues and stomping. Junior and varsity member Eliza Jones leads the group in this anxious jubilation. They come together in a huddle, and then walk in a circle, with one coach beginning, “And the top t10 reasons why FSU is going to kick ass at this tournament are….”, while each member of the team, clad in Calvin Klein and Le Suit and Goodwill coats gives a reason: “we are prepared,” “we’re the best,” “my suit is sexy” and so forth. It is everything a team should be.
Florida State University wins the entirety of the tournament in addition to qualifying numerous members of the team for national entries. Brandishing plastic trophies and already planning the next weekends’ sweep, the team piles into the van to return to school. They play word and logic games, recount the most notable competitors, dream up all the ways in which they can improve. A sport for the mind and a Forensics is the ultimate competition. It is fun, exciting and hyper-efficient – it could only be personified by a German-manufactured car being driven by Katy Perry. And even then, it would be an understatement.