The competitive forensics circuit in the Fall of 2020 was unlike any other before it. The realities of COVID have cancelled tournaments and pushed the remaining online. Tournaments are both synchronous (live) and asynchronous (recorded videos). Most of our team is competing from bedrooms, offices, and living rooms across the country. Despite these challenges, Lafayette Forensics had a remarkable semester. Here’s to celebrating the team’s accomplishments at the end of the semester! We at Lafayette Forensics hope that you are all coping with the COVID-19 pandemic to the best of your ability and hopefully these stories will brighten your day!

We have been continually impressed with our students’ drive and commitment. We competed early, we competed often, and we competed well. The season opened all the way back in September when the speech team competed at the Hill Country Swing hosted by the University of Texas-Austin. At this prestigious season opener, Lafayette really hit the ground running with TEN individual awards and a SECOND place in team sweepstakes. The following weekend the debaters competed at Western Kentucky University’s Fall Fiesta. After two students competed in the Round Robin, we advanced two debaters to elimination rounds and Senior, Scott Kamen made a cameo at the concurrent asynchronous speech tournament. It turned out to be more than a cameo, Scott was named tournament champion in Informative speaking and that was enough to propel us to first overall in combined team sweepstakes.

The tournaments and the awards piled up after that; Southwest Baptist, George Mason, Lafayette, SNAFU, Central Missouri, Seton Hall, Hillsdale, California Baptist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, St. Anselm, Bradley, the Charity Ball, Illinois State, Hofstra, and the UNL/Lafayette Fall Finale. All in all the team competed at SEVENTEEN tournaments in the fall. Between split squad weekends and asynchronous tournaments, the team was in action almost every single weekend in the fall semester. Through it all, the team has brought along a healthy crop of new competitors and provided a platform for students to compete no matter what there personal living situations were like. The awards and accolades only grew through the semester. All-in-all, we had TWENTY NINE individual championships, FOUR team sweepstakes wins, and THREE individual sweepstakes wins.

The coaches are extremely proud of all of the hard work the students put in all semester long. The spring semester has already kicked off and the team is continuing to do well! For a full breakdown of all of the awards, check out and follow our Instagram page at https://instagram.com/lafayetteforensics!  This is the best way to continue to follow the team as we progress through the Pennsylvania State Tournament and the National Tournament calendar!