Sir Winston Churchill Grade 10 student ranked No. 1 in the world for speech and debate

Calgarian a speech, debate world champion Many are terrified at the thought of public speaking, but one Calgary student does it with ease. He's so good, he's now a world champion.

A student from a public school is the overall winner of the World Individual, Debating and Public Speaking Championships hosted in Durban, South Africa, for the first time in tournament history.

Erick Yang, a 16-year-old Grade 10 student, competed in the last week of March against 108 students from 16 countries.

He never dreamed he'd win.

"I didn't really have high expectations," he said.

"A lot of the people were new to worlds, but a lot of them were returners and so they had a lot of clout behind them. A lot of people expected them to win so it was kind of a good feeling when I came up, nobody really knew who I was, and won, but definitely a surprise because if you saw my placements previously, there was no way anyone would have predicted I won."

Yang had to go through provincial and national events to qualify for worlds.

He had his work cut out for him after finishing eighth in provincials.

That was good enough to send him to nationals, where he finished eighth again and only the top six go to worlds.

Quentin Krogstad, a Sir Winston Churchill High School speech coach, says Yang got lucky.

"Two students (in the top six) had qualified through other tournaments so they gave up those seats," said Krogstad.

"So Erick was able to go as again the last person."

But the challenges weren't over for Yang.

Krogstad says there is no funding in the public school system to help pay expenses for the student and a chaperone to get to the South African competition.

Krogstad says the cost of the week-long trip was close to $4,500 per person.

With only three weeks to plan for the trip, Yang's dad found the time and money to make the trip possible.

"They made a pretty big sacrifice to spend this money and this week's holiday that's going to impact later family vacations this year in order to go," he said.

"And then of course winning it made a pretty big difference and made it worthwhile for them, I'm sure."

Once in South Africa, Yang had to prove himself in a number of qualifying rounds before even hoping to reach the finals.

"So I made finals in three categories – in interpretive reading, impromptu and debate," he said.

"After I made those three finals, you debate and you compete again and if you were to advance in those rooms, you would make it to the grand finals so overall, I did eight rounds plus three, which is 11 and then one more so 12 rounds."

Fellow Grade 10 student Jinjou Wang has partnered with Yang at a number of debate competitions, most recently in Oxford, England.

"Erick's very talented as a speaker," he said.

"He picks things up very quickly and so like he went to speech worlds – it was very big for him."

Matthew Osunde is a member of the speech club and signed up to learn how to better communicate.

"It's very inspiring that Erick has gotten that far and persevered so long," he said.

"He's just a hard worker – he doesn't stop, he keeps going, he sticks with what he does, he's committed."

Grade 12 student David Lu says Yang has a winning attitude and always wants to succeed.

"Mr. Krogstad definitely also helps him a lot on his own free time," said Lu.

"Like a lot of lunches that I sometimes come in, I just see him practising with Mr. Krogstad."

And it's paid off.

Yang's coach knows his potential and is proud of the win.

"Erick's really incredible because he combines both natural ability and hard work," he said.

"Some students have one or the other. Erick really combines both and for sure that's why he was able to succeed at that level."

Yang says at the time he was focused on the many tasks at hand during the competition and now has the chance to reflect on his accomplishment.

"I was one of only two public school kids that actually went to the entire tournament, so it's quite inaccessible. I would love to go to worlds again, but I don't think that's really happening," he said.

"The next big thing I guess is hosting speech tournaments. I do that in debate, too, and I really like the hosting aspect, so just getting more people to compete is really exciting."

Even though he holds a prestigious world title, among his 2,400 fellow students in the packed halls of Sir Winston Churchill High School, he's just another face in the crowd.