Cedarville Forensics team’s new dynamic duo 

By Bella Agnello

Photo from last year’s competition

When freshmen Cara and Zane Enos say that they have been part of the forensics world their entire lives, they mean it. Their mother, a high school forensics coach in Colorado, almost gave birth to them while judging a tournament.

For the past eight years, the twins competed in a homeschool speech and debate league. Zane, an Economics major, and Cara, a Psychology major, are members of Cedarville University’s forensics team, which won the National Christian College Forensic Association’s (NCCFA) national tournament held March 7-9. Thirteen out of the 17 students on the team won individual first places, including Zane who won first place in novice impromptu speaking.

Though active members of the team, neither Zane nor Cara felt very strongly about joining the team when they came to Cedarville. Zane, however, realized it would be a good place to make friends.

“ I was like, ‘I might as well check it out,’” Zane said. “I needed community.”

Cara was more hesitant to join the team.

“We have done speech and debate our entire lives,” Cara said. “When you transition to college, you’re not quite sure what’s happening.”

After doing some research, Cara grew excited at the prospect of being part of a community that is “super excellent in what they do.”

Once they found out they made the team, the twins registered in an honors speech class that new members are required to take to train for competitions during the spring semester. There, they got acquainted with their teammates.

“You immediately make friends, you have the varsities[students] that are pouring into you and the novices are all working together,” Zane said. “Immediately being in that network was very helpful.”

During the spring semester, the team won several tournaments, including the state championship. Over spring break they competed in the NCCFA national tournament, held at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. Upon arriving at the campus, Cedarville stood out from the other teams. Next to Colorado Christian University, Cedarville had the largest team.

“I was going in with this expectation that we’re the small fish at this tournament, and I discovered we were not,” Zane said.

Though the team did not win every competition, they did their best and waited to hear the results during the award ceremony. Thirteen students were awarded individual first place prizes and several members of the team placed in the top three of various events. The team won the Quality Award, given to a team recognized for overall excellence.

“It was really surprising – it is very rare for it to be given to one of the larger teams,” Cara said. “So when we won the Quality Award, I knew we had won nationals.”

Finding out that the team won first place in the speech division and second place in debate was not surprising, but moving.

“Our coach, Professor Mischne, has never won a Christian Nationals,” Cara said. “I knew this had meant so much to him, and it means so much more to me that we could do that for him.”

Bella Agnello is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major with a concentration in Journalism. She enjoys thrifting, listening to records and reading classic Russian literature in her spare time.

Photo provided by Cara Enos