Episode 24: Blake Longfellow

Blake Longfellow's journey through forensics has taken him across the country with stops at major collegiate programs along the way. A bay area native, Blake began transitioning from theatre to forensics in high school when a teacher forced him to try duo interpretation. Three years later Blake moved to southern California to attend and compete for Orange Coast College, picking up several community college national titles along the way. In 2009 Blake was one of the top community college competitors in the country, which earned him a small scholarship to attend Bradley University. During his time in Peoria, Illinois Blake won the 2011 NFA Informative speaking championship and two team sweepstakes titles. Then after completing his masters degree at Western Kentucky University in 2014 he left the activity all together. But forensics slowly pulled him back in from the wilderness and in 2016 he became the ADoF in his hometown's high school and community college teams concurrently. He's since help establish Diablo Valley College as one of the nation's premier community college teams, and launched the forensics judging services company Hired Judge. His company has connected hundreds of judges nationwide with tournaments in their local area, and has big plans for the future of forensics. 

•

In this episode, Robert and Blake discuss the power of community college competitors, the finer points of Reader’s Theater, and the goal of winning forensics as a team.  Listen for free through Apple Podcasts, GooglePlay, Overcast, Podbean, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Blake loves flowers so much, he not only strictly wears floral ties, exclusively, but he also brings a potted floral arrangement as a date to most social functions.