Jacob Baker competed for Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California. He was last year’s NFL national champion in International Extemporaneous Speaking, winner of the International Extemporaneous final round, and winner of the Extemp Central National Points Race. Jacob also made the final rounds of Glenbrooks and the California Invitational and was a sixth place finisher at the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin. He will attend Cornell University this autumn. He sat down for an interview with Extemp Central to discuss his experiences in extemporaneous speaking and provide advice for up and coming competitors. This is the second part of a two part interview.
Scisco: Who had the biggest impact on your style of speaking?
Baker: Without a doubt, my coaches. Four teachers were kind enough to donate their time and patience every week to listen to me drone on about obscure politicians or unknown international issues. Bill Healy, my main extemp coach, has all the experience and know-how anyone could ask for having coached several national champions, and was quick to tell me how to improve to get to the level of Evan Larson per se, a teammate who won National Extemp two years ago. Jim Harville, who also has coached many national champions, volunteered his time, as did Dr. Deirdre Sullivan and Mikael Meyer. I can say that I would have always had an interest in public speaking, but without my unbelievable coaches, I would never have been any good.
Scisco: Why do you think you were able to become NFL National Champion last year? In other words, what characteristics about your speaking style enabled you to win over the diverse pool of judges at the tournament?
Baker: That’s a great question that deserves a great answer, but I’m afraid that as much as points and tallymarks may matter, extemp is a highly subjective event. Unfortunately I have no silver-bullet solution. What appeals to one judge may not satisfy another, the best I could do was aim for the center. I tried to be succinct and blunt in presentation of my topic; to present an argument that was well founded with established experts, not just some adolescent’s thoughts; to try to tell stories that weren’t necessarily on the newspaper’s front page.
Scisco: What was your favorite tournament to attend last year? Why?
Baker: The MBA tournament was fantastic. This past year was the first time I was fortunate enough to be invited, and while I can’t say much for the weather, at their beautiful campus I had the opportunity to meet a lot of wonderful people (who I still keep in contact with) and have an incredibly intense weekend of competition with feedback from coaches nationwide. Not to mention the day my coach Bill and I spent in downtown Nashville – the Country Music Hall of Fame gave me a newfound appreciation for country music, though Dolly Parton isn’t on my playlist yet.
Scisco: What event would you have done in forensics if you had not done extemp?
Baker: I participated in policy debate all my four years, but slowly let it fall to the wayside to focus on extemp. I always enjoyed the analysis it required, and that, like extemp, it rewarded hard work. So if I could, I would have taken up policy more seriously.
Scisco: Any predictions for this coming year on the circuit?
Baker: I think what Neils Bohr said is acutely appropriate, “Prediction is difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” I can only tell you what I know, and that’s fairly limited, so I won’t make any predictions for fear I’ll disappoint, but I can say that I had the chance to compete against Nabeel at many tournaments over the years, and he’s always been tough competition. I had the chance to meet Dylan at the national tournament for the first time, and he seemed not only to know his stuff, but from what I heard, put on an impressive show during the final round of national extemp. And while my school won’t have any returning national finalists, there are certainly some rising juniors like Vijay Singh and James Thomas that – provided the investment of time – could be great.
Scisco: You, Oscar Wang, and Nabeel Zewail all had great seasons last year. California has had a great deal of success on the national stage in recent years, arguably more than any other state since 2008. Why do you think this is the case?
Baker: The best answer I can give is that there are an enormity of students from an equally numerous amount of highly motivated schools that are constantly in head to head competition. Our league contained Leland, a perennial powerhouse. It always seemed that traveling was unnecessary because the best competition was at home.
Scisco: Do you believe there are any emerging trends in extemp? Are there any changes you would like to see in the event?
Baker: I saw a great comic recently that might illustrate what, while definitely not isolated to extemp, is certainly a problem. On one side, under the label “old a baseball fan” a man complains that he wants a ‘pitcher not a belly itcher’. Then under the ‘new’ masthead, the fan complains about the pitcher’s WHIP and ERA, and rattles off just too many statistics. It’s important that no one ever lose sight of the notion that extemp is really just an activity for high school students, when you get caught up in the specifics or overanalyze your faults or agonize over a flawed speech, that you not lose sight of the broader picture. It might be a competition, but no one should take themselves too seriously. But were I to pick one facet of the activity to change, it would be to make it more environmentally friendly: all too often I would dump out reams of old articles that would put even the most zealous lumberjack to shame.
Scisco: How does it feel to be last year’s National Points Race champion?
Baker: I can only say it was a pleasant surprise.
Scisco: Thanks again Jacob for doing this interview with Extemp Central and congratulations again on a great season.
Baker: Thank you, and good luck to all those who will be competing in the years to come.