Students prepare to try to qualify for nationals

With state behind them, the Green River High School Speech and Debate Team now has its sights set on districts.

The Wind River District meet will take place in Riverton this weekend.

“They are excited to compete for a chance to qualify for nationals. I think having state in their rearview mirror takes a lot of pressure off of them,” head coach Carina White said.

The district tournament is a double-elimination tournament -- in debate it simply means two losses; but in other events it is two ranks out of four through sixth to be eliminated.

“It is brutal and very difficult to get to that final round to have a chance at qualifying,” she said.

Those who make it to the final rounds will have their entire cumulative score reviewed; and the person with the lowest score qualifies. Some events will qualify three and others will qualify two.

Despite a third-place finish at state, the team is excited and ready for districts.

“We want as many qualifiers as possible and a district championship,” White said. “Seniors especially feel the pressure to qualify as it is the last tournament of their career.”

Once again, the team has to face limitations on how many students they can take. However, these limitations are not nearly as strict as Wyoming’s state competition and are based on how team members have performed throughout the season. White said they are planning on taking 45 students to districts this year.

“We select the students; our entries are based off of the amount of degrees the team earns by competing through the season,” she said. “We have a lot of degrees so we have more entries than other teams.”

The team plans to compete in humor, oratory, duet, drama, domestic extemporaneous, international extemporaneous, program oral interpretation, informative, public forum debate, cross examination debate, Lincoln Douglas debate, senate and house.

The students are ready to try and qualify for nationals.

“We are anxious to see how the kids do,” she said. “There is strength in every event from multiple schools. The 1A, 2A and 3A schools have strength as well.”