Speech and debate hosts tournament

The high school was bustling last weekend. A group of freshmen was running around the school carrying radios with Dan Parson "barking orders" at them while they tabulated results, organized rounds, delivered ballots, helped judges, and generally ran Green River High School's speech and debate tournament.

This year, over a dozen schools from across Wyoming came to Green River to participate in the tournament, which was even bigger than last year. The event went well, according to Speech and Debate Coach Dan Parson, who has helped host 25 tournaments at the high school.

"The overwhelming response by the community and other teachers and coaches and the kids was very, very positive - more so than most years," Parson said. "So I feel like we hit a home run with it."

Making sure everything went smoothly with the tournament was an extra challenge this year, since most of the students helping were freshmen. The speech and debate team members don't participate in the tournament when it's hosted at home since they stay busy organizing and running it for the other teams. This year, a little over half of the team members are new students, and for the tournament most of the upperclassmen on the team couldn't make it, leaving things up to the younger members.

"I do think the educational value of putting on a big event like that and putting it in the hands of a bunch of 14-year-olds is pretty significant," Parson said.

The students who run the tournament not only have to do a "pile of jobs" for the event, according to Parson, but they also have to learn how to interact with community members, learn how to troubleshoot problems, and keep up with two days of working for hours on end, often without breaks.

Despite all the hard work, the students enjoyed the tournament and have been "buzzing about it" ever since, Parson said.

While Green River's turn to host a tournament came earlier in the season than usual this year, the season has already started for GRHS's team. The students started practicing in October and had the chance to participate in a few workshops, which was new for the team and helpful for the new members.

The official start of the season came a few weeks ago, when the Wolves took second during the Rock Springs tournament. Parson was pleased with how the team did, especially since they weren't too far away from first place and at that point he felt like not all the team members were quite up to the level he believes they'll be able to perform at once the season gets going.

"I think we stand a chance of maybe doing some big things this year," Parson said.

The team has strong captains and good upperclassmen, according to Parson, and even though having so many new team members can be a challenge, he also sees it as an exciting opportunity. He especially enjoys watching new students get "addicted" to practicing and competing.

Having a lot of team members also means there is a need for peer coaching, which is a good challenge for the upperclassmen, who can think like competitors and share what they've learned.

"What a great opportunity for a young person who is, say, 15, 16, 17, 18 years old, to have to teach something that's as hard as debate or as complex as debate to somebody else," Parson said.

Having team members work together and help one another is also important in working towards the team's main goal.

"The biggest thing we're working on is continuing to build a cohesive sort of family-like atmosphere," Parson explained. "That's easily the most important thing. The season is so long and arduous and what we do is so personal in its way."

Speech and debate can be intense and exhausting, Parson said. Their season is as long as the winter and spring sports seasons combined. This year they'll have three more tournaments between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and when they come back in the new year they'll be competing eight weekends in a row without a break.

In addition to the long hours and hard work, speech and debate is unique because team members compete individually but try to win as a team, so sometimes a loss can come down to a few individuals and feel more personal.

"There has to be a warm and sort of open-minded and forgiving culture on the team for it to be cohesive," Parson said.

While there are challenges, Parson is confident in and proud of the students on the team, and he's excited to see where things go this season.