The competitive forensics circuit in the Fall of 2020 is 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 has had a remarkable semester. In order to celebrate these accomplishments we will be profiling the success of some of our most senior competitors before 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!

Scott Kamen (’21) has had a phenomenal semester.

September: Straight out the gates Scott virtually traveled to the University of Texas-Austin’s Hillcountry Swing. He took 2nd in Informative, 4th in Persuasion, and 4th in Prose. The very next weekend, Scott competed at an asynchronous tournament hosted by Western Kentucky University. Scott’s Informative speech won 1st place! This was a huge accomplishment at one of the early national circuit tournaments and was a sign of things to come.

October: The awards kept rolling in at George Mason. This was the first time Lafayette had attended this tournament in a VERY long time, but we showed extremely well. Scott took 4th place in Communication Analysis and 5th place in Informative. At the first SNAFU tournament, he took 4th place in Persuasion and 5th place in Prose. At Seton Hall, he took 1st in Persuasion, 2nd in Informative, 3rd in Communication Analysis, 5th in Prose, 2nd place in Individual Sweeps. In addition to the trophies, Scott also was named the winner of the Ed Leonard award that recognizes a competitor who approaches forensics with a sense of warmth and community.

November: Back on the asynchronous grind at California Baptist University, Scott took 1st in Informative, 2nd in Communication Analysis, and 2nd in Prose. Despite all of this success, some of his best results were still to come. At the Nebraska-Lincoln tournament he was tournament champion in Communication Analysis, Persuasion, AND Individual Sweeps (and a 3rd in Informative to boot!). The cherry on top was at one of the most prestigious asynchronous tournaments of the season, the Norton at Bradley University. Scott’s recorded performances were awarded a quarterfinal finish in Prose, 2nd place in Informative, and 5th place in Communication Analysis. This was enough for 5th place in Individual Sweepstakes and 2nd place in Limited Team Sweepstakes!

Give Scott your congratulations! These accomplishments would be impressive over the course of an entire season, but Scott has another semester’s worth of tournaments to add to these impressive accolades. Stay tuned for an other profile in a couple of weeks.