She had no prepared speech. Valencia 16-year-old Ava DiNapoli was given three prompts and just two minutes to compose her thoughts. She chose to speak about nepotism. She had five minutes to make her point.
DiNapoli received second place in the nation for “impromptu speaking” during the 2025 National Speech and Debate Tournament between June 15 and 20 in Des Moines, Iowa. During a telephone interview after the tournament, she expressed her love for public speaking.
“The first time I ever did speech and debate was in fourth grade,” she said. “I joined a little after-school program, and it was fun. I didn’t really understand it then, but when I got to high school and I was looking for things to help me get prepared for college, I found the speech and debate team and ended up joining. It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I started to really, really love it. But once I did, I kind of put myself into it as much as I could, and then I ended up here (the National Speech and Debate Tournament) after a lot of practice and a lot of other tournaments.”
Several local students competed in Des Moines, including others from Valencia High School and some from West Ranch High School.
According to Debbie Dunn, spokeswoman for the William S. Hart Union High School District, West Ranch High School sent its first Worlds School Debate team to the national tournament.
Team captain Dylan Muller, a National Speech and Debate Association Academic All-American recipient who competed at the tournament a few years back, was joined by Flora Lopes Dezen, Ishita Muppala, Matthew Poberezhskiy and Sophia Vlach. These students, Dunn wrote in a news release, qualified for the tournament after five rounds of debate and taking second place in the West Los Angeles District.
Muller, who just graduated high school and is on his way next year to Texas A&M University with plans to study chemical engineering, was thrilled to be the captain of his team, which competed in the debate category.
“I just picked some debaters who I thought were talented and who would do good,” he said during a telephone interview after the tournament. “We had four preliminary rounds, and then we had to go to a tiebreaker round, and then we won the tiebreaker. We then finished second in the qualifying stage.”
Muller added that he and his team put in quite a bit of work beforehand, practicing on their days off and throughout the beginning of the summer. He said they frequented public libraries to work on a number of prepared arguments. Muller was especially proud of three of his teammates, who were first-year competitors.
Dunn added that West Ranch High junior Rohan Radharaj had gone eight rounds at the tournament, taking fourth place in the West Los Angeles District, earning his first nationals qualification.
West Ranch coach Michael T. Smith wrote in a prepared statement that the tournament ultimately provided a great opportunity for his team.
“(W)hile the tournament was incredibly competitive,” he said, “students learned a lot by engaging and debating with students from around the country.”
In addition to DiNapoli, other competitors from Valencia High included Omar Reza, Rishith Jaligama, Daniela Tapia and Sanvika Pasumarthy.
DiNapoli said that the tournament offered different types of speaking competitions.
“I think there’s a common misconception that it’s all just debate, but it’s not,” she said. “There are some events that are purely about debate. Others, you’re presenting speeches. So, you’re writing a speech and memorizing it. The type of event I did was impromptu, so I didn’t have any time to prepare.”
Asked how she can practice impromptu speeches, in which she can’t rely on thinking or writing anything beforehand, she said she reads articles and books and constantly listens for stories that she’ll then put away in her memory.
Her most important tool, however, is the ability to relate those stories to various subjects.
“You have to be able to connect it to the prompt, which you can do with just about any two things,” she said. “But honestly, the best thing to do is just practice speaking.”
Both DiNapoli and Muller spoke about the importance of speech and debate.
According to DiNapoli, when people learn that she does speech and debate, they often ask if she’s interested in going into law. She’s not.
“The skills you build can really help with any major, because speaking is something you’re going to need for anything,” she said. “Being able to think fast and talk confidently is really important for a lot of different majors and a lot of different career paths. It’s helped me in a lot of places, other than just with college applications — just being able to meet new people and talk to them.”
DiNapoli is so passionate about the skill that she even offers speech workshops for students in fourth grade to seventh grade. She operates what she currently calls Junior Speakers at JuniorSpeakers.com, though her mom, Karen DiNapoli, said they might change the name.
Muller said public speaking and debate are skillsets he thinks everyone should develop. It teaches one how to research, read sources, critically think, organize one’s thoughts, and communicate clearly to others in a public setting.
“I would definitely encourage everyone — every parent looking into an activity for the children to do — to do it,” he said. “No matter what you want to do (in life), it just makes you better.”
