On Tuesday, October 22 the speech and debate team had their first meet of the conference season. The conference speech and debate tournament takes place over the course of 5 meets. There are 2 “A meets” where students perform prose reading, dramatic interpretation, duo interpretation, storytelling, extemporaneous speaking, Lincoln Douglas Debate, and public forum debate. The other 2 meets of the conference season are “B meets” where students perform poetry reading, radio speaking, humorous interpretation, duet acting, and original oratory. These 4 meets determine whether or not a student qualifies for the 5th meet, conference finals. At finals the top 8 student in each event can compete to earn a conference medal. This meet was the first A meet of the season.
Among the 25 members of the PHS speech team many students were extremely excited about their results, while others felt disappointed but are ready to use that motivation to improve their scores at the next meet. Senior, Magnum McCormack, tried storytelling as a first time event and was extremely successful at his first meet. He placed first in round one and second in round two. When asked about his success, McCormack stated, “I am very surprised, that’s for sure. I did not expect to place as well as I did my first time trying this event. I am excited to keep improving my piece and see what the rest of the season has in store for me.”
Juniors, Macy Saunders and Kallie Barker, were first in round one and round two and are currently undefeated. When I asked Saunders how she felt when she saw her placement on her ballots she said, “I was very happy, we worked so hard to get ready for that meet and seeing it pay off felt so good. I am very proud of Kallie for placing so well at her first ever meet.”
This is also our schools first ever year participating in debate. Despite the challenge of having to learn a new event our students have risen to meet the challenge. Student Violet Sisk earned a victory in the second round of Lincoln Douglas Debate.
It’s very exciting to see what the future will hold for our Trojan speech team!
