Speech team preps for 1st tourney

The Green River Speech and Debate team members may not have had as much time to prepare as they would have liked, but they are still setting their sights on a first-place finish.

The team’s first tournament will take place close to home at the Rock Springs High School. Eleven teams from Wyoming and Idaho are scheduled to compete in this weekend’s tourney.

“The great thing about starting the season in Rock Springs is that it is so close that parents are able to attend and see what exactly it is that we do,” head coach Carina Stulken said. “It is so important to have that parent support and it is one of the reasons that we are so successful.”

Although the team has only been practicing for a few weeks, Stulken wants them to do their best.

“I expect excellence from this team and they expect it from themselves,” she said. “They are working late into the evenings at practice and our goal is to win this tournament.”

The first tournament of the season is always a difficult one for the 80-person team.

“This tournament is very early in the season and with many fall sports just finishing up and students that have just barely started perfecting pieces the team is not as prepared as I would like us to be,” Stulken said.

“Many students will only be competing in one event rather than doubling in more than one event simply because they haven’t had adequate time to prepare their secondary pieces.”

Stulken wants the students to be challenged and see where they stand against other teams.

“It is a doubled-edged sword attending such an early tournament because it gives the students a chance to actually start competing, which I believe pushes them to work harder at their events, but it is also so early that we aren’t at our full capability,” she said.

All 80 members of the team do get the chance to compete, however they must have done the work.

“Our criteria is that they are present and prepared for their scheduled practice time,” she said. “Everyone that has attended practice will compete.”

“The knowledge of the teams history of success is always present on this team because we expect them to rise to the standards that we know each of them are capable of being at,” she said.

“This will be another season of record breaking I believe. The pressure right now is to have pieces as perfected as they can be in the limited time we have had to prepare for this tournament.”