The Mt. Hood Community College Forensics Team finished second against community colleges and third overall in the Ben Padrow Invitational Tournament at Portland State University March 4-5.

“It was brutal, but I think – despite the brutality – the students handled it very well,” said speech instructor and forensics coach Shannon Valdivia.

More than 10 schools, including Lewis and Clark and Portland State University, attended the tournament.

“The competition wasn’t as strong as the Western States Tournament,” held Feb. 17-20, “but there were still some pretty good teams,” said Valdivia.

According to Valdivia, the team has “discovered their potential.” She said the success of the team has been “hit-and-miss” since last fall. “Then all of a sudden – about February – a fire [was] lit under their butt[s], and now they’re working really hard,” Valdivia said, laughing.

Valdivia believes the team’s hard work has been paying off. “They’re really seeing how dominant we can be when we really put our nose to the grindstone.”

Jeff Fisher, a former national champion in debate who attended MHCC in 2002, has been helping the team, offering extra coaching.

According to Valdivia, four forensics students – Vince Peterson, Shane Hinton, David Childers and Sean Partch – are headed to Nationals in April. Valdivia said the team has made it their goal to be on top, “…and I think they can – I really think they can.”

MHCC’s forensics team will host their next tournament, The MHCC Casual Fling Nationals Warm-Up, today and Saturday. Western Washington, the College of Southern Idaho, University of Oregon, Reed College and Lower Columbia College will attend the Warm-Up.

“For any teams who wanted a last-minute scrapping, [we said] they could come to the ‘Hood’ and we’d take care of it,” Valdivia said. “We’re going to have six schools here. It will be a small, intimate tournament.”

Nationals will be held in Philadelphia, April 10-16. The team will be staying at the Wyndham Hotel in Downtown.

Valdivia said after Nationals, MHCC’s forensics team will compete at the Community College Championship Tournament, April 29-30, at Clark College, followed by their last tournament at Clackamas Community College.

“And then we’re done,” said Valdivia, exclaiming, “It’s a long season – it’s nine months long!”