Bellarmine College Preparatory Wins State Speech and Debate Competition for Second Consecutive Year.

News Editors/Education Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 2004

Bellarmine College Preparatory today announced that its Speech and Debate Team has won the California State Championship for the second consecutive year. Four students won individual state titles: Robert Bergin for Humorous Interpretation; Jon Weed for National Extemporaneous, and David Sepetka and Alex D'Amour for Policy Debate.

Bellarmine performed especially well in National Extemporaneous, where, in addition to Jon Weed, three other Bellarmine students also finished in the top six in the state. Bellarmine also did extremely well in Policy Debate, where the Bells had two of the top four teams in the state.

"We're very proud of our students and their great showing at the state championships again this year," said Mark Pierotti, principal at Bellarmine. "These students work very hard, putting in long hours in addition to their normal school hours and are terrific examples of what we hope our students become -- young men who actively listen, learn and understand the world around us and share their knowledge, abilities and understanding with others."

The mission of the Bellarmine Speech and Debate program is to develop active listeners, who seek to understand all sides of an issue, whether world affairs or personal choices. Its goal is to instill an ability and willingness to articulate what might be an unpopular opinion for those who have no voice and to communicate these concerns to a wide lay audience.

The Speech and Debate Team competes in fifteen different events at a variety of competitions throughout the year, ranging from cross-examination debate to humorous and dramatic interpretation events to dramatic interpretation and current events news analysis. The team competes in some 25 tournaments from October to June each year. Bellarmine has won eight state team championships since 1992. The team also won the National Championship in 1994. Eleven Bellarmine speakers have won individual national championships, and Bellarmine has produced 62 individual state champions.

About Bellarmine College Preparatory

Bellarmine College Preparatory has been educating young men since 1851, when it was originally founded on the same campus as Santa Clara University. The school has been at its current location on West Hedding in San Jose's College Park district for 78 years. Bellarmine students are educated in the Jesuit tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, and are encouraged to become "men for others." While Bellarmine strives for academic excellence, the school also seeks to instill a sense of responsibility through a variety of community ministry and Christian Service Programs. Bellarmine has a current enrollment of 1450 and a faculty/staff of 150.