Poor speaker becomes top debater

As a grade school kid, Matthew Gold struggled with his speech. The letter "r" gave him a particularly hard time.

"My parents said they couldn't understand me," Gold said. "My older sister used to interpret for me."

Now, years later, the 18-year-old Stevenson High School senior has not only overcome his speech problems, he's being recognized as one of the best debaters in the state.

Gold, of Buffalo Grove, placed in the top ten at the Illinois Congressional Debate Association's recent tournament. He competed against nearly 250 students.

Gold said his parents enrolled him in speech therapy classes from first through eighth grade. He did well, but still feared public speaking when he joined the debate team at Stevenson.

"I was a poor speaker my first year," Gold said. "It was pretty scary and made me nervous."

But Gold pushed forward under the encouragement of his coaches and gained confidence each year.

English teacher Bill Fritz is Gold's debate coach. He said Gold has really come into his own in the last few years.

"Matthew has come a long way since his days as a somewhat shy freshman," Fritz said. "He's become an articulate leader now. He's bright, thoughtful and smart. He's a strategic thinker."

The tournament format required extemporaneous speeches on social, economic and international policy questions.

The competitors gave three-minute speeches and took two minutes of questions during the competition held at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb last month.

"I spoke to the question of how the United States can protect itself from the increasing violence spilling over the border from Mexico," Gold said. "My other topic was to discuss the idea of 'micro-credit' for poverty-stricken people in India."

Fritz said making it to the top ten is no small feat.

"It requires deep knowledge on a variety of subjects," Fritz said. "Matthew has that. He's going to be a leader someday."

With hopes of a career as a lawyer, Gold is headed to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this fall.

Being on the debate team has gone a long way in forming his character, Gold said.

"Debate has matured me. That's for sure."