Potosi High School has been building its impressive speech and debate team for the past few years.
Speech and beate take a lot of effort and dedication, but most people don’t get to witness it.
They start their days off early, usually meeting at the school before 5 am. It takes about 15 minutes to get our stuff together and load up the bus after taking attendance.
We usually stop for breakfast on the way to the competition so competitors can be energized and satisfied. As soon as we get to the competition, we find our spot as a group, get the wifi password, and start running our pieces.
We usually have 2 rounds of competing before finals. Students spend all year developing and perfecting their speech pieces. So in between rounds, they continue to tweak their pieces. After the first rounds, we have lunch. It’s usually just fast food or doordash so we can spend as much time preparing. Tensions are very high after a long day and most students will compete against classmates in finals. Finals at the district lasted longer than 2 hours.
After finals, we get some time to breathe while the judges decide before making our way to the award ceremony. We finally end our night at 10 when we return to school after having a nice relaxing meal.
PHS speech and debate had a lot of finalists at districts and many entries into the state. This is what it takes to make chaotic Saturdays successful, if you’re interested in being a part of it, stop by room 19 and talk to Mr. Dement, The PHS theater director.
