This week the Speech and Debate team returned from the State competition in Cleveland. With a tough loss to end the season for most Speech and Debate members, the team still has recognizable accomplishments from this year such as winning two sweepstakes tournaments. The team won the tournament held at the high school and the Upper Arlington tournament.
“We have had a great season, and accomplished a lot. We had 21 students qualify for state and three qualify for nationals…We won sweeps at a tournament, where we had the largest number of points across each category,” Madelynn Einhorn (11) said.
Sweepstakes evaluates how the team does in different categories. It is a collective effort that was successful in receiving the all around award, the sweepstake, for the tournament.
Even though the entire team didn’t have a desirable outcome at the State tournament, there are still some individual members continuing on to compete at Nationals in June in Birmingham, Alabama. The three members that qualified to go to Nationals are all juniors: Einhorn, Bella Fiore, and Sara Pierce. The list still has an opportunity to grow as well.
“[Going to Nationals is] definitely exciting. I don’t expect to win or move on into the later rounds but just seeing different approaches and styles will be so interesting. I’m excited to meet people from all over the country. It will be an incredible learning experience to make me better for next year,” Fiore said.
As this year ends, the future for Speech and Debate for years to come burns brighter. Coach Matt Deters is already planning for next year.
“We have a group of seniors who are graduating this year and I’m sorry to see them go. They have been a great group of leaders, but I also know that we have a lot of juniors and sophomores who are incredibly talented and I’m excited to see what they can do next year,” Deters said.
Next year, the Speech and Debate team plans to expand their tournaments a little bit more in hopes of more challenging competitions as well as receiving feedback from different judges. Coming up in the spring, coaches are looking to recruit students who would be interested in joining Speech and Debate. For more information about Speech and Debate, contact Matt Deters at [email protected].
By: Caroline Daniels
