This upcoming weekend the Green River High School Speech and Debate team will participate in its first tournament of the year.
The team won’t have to travel far since the tournament is in Rock Springs. This year, the entire team will compete. In years past, the novice portion of the team were the only ones competing at the RS tourney.
“This tournament is very early for us, so for this past several years I have only brought our novice to compete. This season we decided to compete with everyone because we want to develop that sense of team unity early on,” head coach Carina White said.
White said the team isn’t ready and many of the students only have had enough time to prepare for one event.
Other schools across the state, started speech-and-debate practice in August and White isn’t sure how GR will do against them.
“It will be interesting to see how we fare at this first tournament,” she said. “Win or lose it will motivate us in the weeks to come.”
Regardless of what the outcome of this weekend is, the team will work hard and learn to work with each other.
“We are excited for this season and anxious to see what it brings,” she said. “The team lost 11 seniors last year, but White knowns her team is still talented.”
“Out of the nine national qualifiers we took to Alabama this summer only two graduated,” White explained.
This year, about 70 students are on the speech and debate team, however, that number could change with fall sports coming to an end.
“We are definitely heavy on seniors this year, we will lose a lot of talent at the end of this season, but we have also recruited a lot of upcoming talent,” White said. “We are possibly the strongest we have ever been this season.”
Despite having a heavy junior and senior presence on the team, White believes they can only help.
“I don’t think this junior and senior class feels pressure, they have had success since their freshman year,” she said. “GRHS definitely has a target on their back though, we will have to work very hard to keep our state title. “I think we demand excellence and we try to recruit new talent year after year. We help our students develop their talent and we make sure we have strength in every event.”
The team eliminated two tournaments from the its schedule this year, but White doesn’t feel it will impact their performance.
“I actually feel the opposite, with a few more weekends off students won’t feel so burnt out,” she said.
Over the years, GRHS’s Speech and Debate Team has made quite a name for itself and it’s national and state rankings reflect that.
The Speech and Debate Association ranks the top 100 students out of thousands of students who compete in each event.
“To have so many students from our program ranked speaks to the level of dedication and talent this group has,” White said.
GR students making top 10 in Wyoming
1. Gregory Marchal, 2,184
4. Dallin Hoyt, 1,874
5. Patrick Marchal, 1,810
6. Jesse Lauze, 1,784
7. Atlin Johnson, 1,744
8. Victoria Allen, 1,702
10. Abigaile Grubb, 1,580
GR students making Nationwide Rankings
2. Hoyt, 872, humorous interpretation
2. Elaine Comer, 419, poetry
5. Allen, 744, oratory
9. G. Marchal, extemporaneous speaking
11. Sarah Kropf, 667, duet
18. Grubb, 477, informative, 69th, Lincoln Douglas debate
31. Johnson, 970, Congress
31. P. Marchal, 961, Congress
45. Jesse Lauze, 869, Congress
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