With medals won and leaders moving on, Solano’s champions hope to attract the next generation of speakers
FAIRFIELD — On Thursday, May 15, the Solano Community College Debate team held a welcoming event in the 700 building, room 704. They answered curious students’ questions about joining the team and provided complimentary pizza.
As this semester wraps up, the 2025 season for the Solano Debate team is one to look back on quite fondly. In April, the team traveled to Norfolk, VA, to compete in the Phi Rho Pi Community College National Forensics Tournament.
The debate team came home with impressive accolades, with Malika Amin Mirador and Tyler Sasabuchi winning gold in Parliamentary debate and Francesca Frano winning three medals, including silver in Extemporaneous speaking and silver in IPDA debate. The team won seven medals in total, with Professor Whitesell taking home the Silver Wheeler Sweepstakes Division Debate President’s Service Award.
Tyler Sasabuchi had a simple reason for the success seen at the national level: “being good at what we do.”
Outside of talent, Sasabuchi also attributes the team’s dedication to their craft to the accomplishments they saw in Virginia.
“The willingness to show up and spend long hours & learn weird things…we do all of it and are very good at all of it,” he said.
This success has been consistent all semester, going back to February when the Solano debate team traveled to Las Positas College in Livermore to take part in the Talk Hawk Invitational.
Here they dominated, more so than in the recent trip to Norfolk. The team took home multiple gold medals and first-place finishes, such as Mahari Wright, who won Gold in the Junior IPDA debate.
Though winning gold can be seen as daunting by some, Tyler wants to reassure new people looking to join the debate team that “anybody can do this.”
“None of us started out being this good…none of us started out winning medals out the gate,” he admitted.
With the experienced core of the team moving on from Solano after this semester, Co-captain Tyler Sasabuchi & his peers alike hope to use the Welcome event to find some eager students to fill these roles they’re leaving behind.
“We’re hoping to get more people on the team, a lot of our veteran competitors, including myself, will be leaving this year,” he explained.
The students leaving other than Tyler include: Malika Amin Mirador, Christian Vilanueva, & Nathaniel Whitmire.
Not only are these students leaving, but the long-time Communications Professor & Debate coach, Janene Whitesell, is retiring after the spring semester. With a bulk of the team’s experience & leadership leaving, the Solano CC Debate team is looking at some pretty big changes.
