Waking up at 6 o’clock a.m. on a Saturday morning would be something out of the question for many high school students. It’s dark and cold, and many, most likely, fell asleep late the night before. However, for a few Ida B. Wells students, a 6 o’clock alarm means something big: a tournament—the first one of this year.
Through Oct. 20 to 21, IBW held the first Speech and Debate (SAD) Tournament for many schools in Oregon. With over 25 schools and hundreds of students, the first tournament of the season was full of excitement.
The SAD tournament began after school on Oct. 20 with many students coming over to IBW to participate in their events till 9 pm. It was split up into two parts: Congress and Spar Debate. IBW’s SAD does not participate in Congress but does in Spar: a spontaneous argumentation that is around 10 minutes long and completely improvised. This is one of the few tournaments that will have Spar style debate this season, but it continues to remain a favorite among participants, as they get to debate interesting topics, one of which this year was, “Caffeine ought to be in the school water fountain.”
Saturday was the all-day event with participants, judges and spectators arriving at the school by 7 a.m. and staying until 9 p.m. The speech events and the debate events were split up into patterns A and B, with students following one of them, or both if they participated in both speech and debate. Sammi Shelton, a sophomore at IBW, participated in speech events, poetry and informative.
Poetry consists of combining stanzas from three or more different poems and it is often read in a dramatic way within eight minutes. “With poetry you get to hear other people’s poetry and a lot of times it can be emotional, it’s just really cool to hear other people,” Shelton said. Many students enjoy the creativity behind SAD. Creating poems and speeches allows students to embrace their interests and inform people on topics they truly care about.
Sam Hartoch, an IBW sophomore, did three events: Radio, a five-minute rehearsed speech you read off of a computer or paper impersonating a radio show host, Impromptu, another five-minute speech where you only have 30 seconds to prepare on the spot, and Parliamentary Debate, 15 minutes of prep time to make a positive or negative case on a chosen topic and then debate. All events have their different challenges that come with them, but they also have benefits. Giving an impromptu speech encourages students to enhance their public speaking skills and confidence, especially when given a topic they don’t know very well.
Events were split up into three rounds and participants performed debates in all three. Depending on the place they received in the rounds, they would move to the semifinals.
In Between the rounds, students would go to the food carts, walk around the school, or stay in the cafeteria.
All schools were set up in the cafeteria, with students piling their backpacks, computers and snacks at their tables. Many long-time speech and debate participants have gotten to know students from other schools and these tournaments give them opportunities to reconnect.
Cassidy Beebe, a senior and captain on the IBW team, has been a part of speech and debate since their sophomore year. “I am a speech and debate kid at heart and these are the sort of people I like to make friends with,” they said. “Between rounds, I can make friends from other schools; I’ve got like 10, 15, people I always look for at a tournament from other schools that I rarely get to see.”
By 5:00 p.m., the semifinals and finals for debate began and those who qualified went into their assigned rooms. An hour later, the speech rounds began. A notable final round was Program Oral Interpretation (POI). POI is a not fully memorized speech about a self-chosen topic, students talk about an issue by using different pieces of literature and media. Oftentimes participants will talk about more intense topics—Cedar Tatarek, a senior and captain of the IBW team, gave a speech about domestic violence.
Around 8:15, everyone headed towards the auditorium for the awards ceremony. The awards were separated by the events and whether the students were novices: first-year SAD participants, or open: everyone else.
IBW had a total of seven finalists:
- Fiona Vanderwal – first in Open Impromptu Speech
- Sammi Shelton – first in Open Informative Speech
- Elise Gorsegner-Harless – first in Open Radio
- Cedar Tatarek – first in Spar Debate and third in Open POI
- Rory Daniels – second in Spar Debate
- Ruby Parr – third Semi-Finalist in Spar Debate and Radio finalist
- Renee Owens – third in Novice Oratory
Throughout the two days of the tournament, the team received an immense amount of support from their head coach, Terese Bushnell. Bushnell was their assistant coach for two years and has now taken the role of their head coach. Her job as the head coach is to support the students in their speeches and watch their practice debates while helping them understand different ways of thinking out their events.
“Working with the kids, it’s a really cool group of kids, they’re hard-working, they’re smart, they’re interested in events and current issues and things like that,” said Bushnell. “I think it’s really cool to watch them develop using their voice and the skills that are needed to do that.”
The sense of excitement never faltered during the two-day-long tournament, and IBW had huge success in hosting and participating in the first tournament of the season. The next tournament IBW’s SAD team will be attending is the Oktoberfest tournament on Oct. 28 at Neah-Kah-Nie High School in Rockaway Beach, Oregon. Oktoberfest is the tournament near Halloween time, where everyone can dress up in costumes.
“Our team is the coolest group of kids. They are totally supportive of each other and they help each other grow, and in speech and debate generally, there is really something for everybody,” said Bushnell. “There are people who are interested in poetry all the way to very serious debates. It’s really varied and so I think it’s really interesting for pretty much anybody with any interest.”
