All the pieces matter

"I swear speech saved my life," Elle Taylor said.

She described how she was a different person, and not a very good person, her freshman year, but after joining the Green River High School Speech and Debate team, she changed. Taylor said she grew and improved personally, which she credits to the people she did speech and debate with.

"I will never forget this whole team," Taylor said, fighting back tears.

Taylor was just one of many people who got emotional during the Speech and Debate Awards Ceremony last week.

The ceremony, which included an ice cream social to celebrate a successful season, was hosted in the Green River High School commons and included a slideshow of pictures from the season, recognition of all the individual team members' accomplishments, the Big Team/Little Me award given from the seniors to a freshman who exemplifies what the team stands for, parting comments from the seniors, the swearing in of new captains, and comments from the coaches.

"What a season we've had," Assistant Coach Nick Hoskins said.

He pointed out that after starting practices in October, hosting one of the largest tournaments Green River has had, and attending tournaments all across the state in which they always took either first or second, the team wrapped up their season by having students qualify for the National Tournament and by taking second at the State Championship, missing first by only two points.

"Somewhere along the line, with all of this travel, practice, competition, hotels, and general craziness, this team became a family," Hoskins said.

The family connection was apparent as students cheered for each others' accomplishments and shed tears at the seniors' parting words.

Head Coach Dan Parson noted that the seniors on the team, most of whom have participated in speech and debate all four years of high school, are the "COVID babies" who went through the before and after of the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping things going through virtual tournaments and getting back to normal after.

"There will be generations and generations of kids who can enjoy speech and debate because you guys kept this team alive," Parson told them.

The seniors described some of their favorite memories from their time in speech and debate and gave advice to the underclassmen.

"Do more than two events," Lukas Bagshaw encouraged the team members.

"Never tell yourself you can't do something," Faith Duncan said. "If you want something, go out and get it."

"Don't give up," Kyra Holmes told them.

"Don't ever forget the power of words," Elle Taylor added.

The senior captains on the team also conducted a swearing in ceremony for next year's captains, for which they made up their own oaths, bringing out laughter as well as heartfelt encouragement.

"Do you swear to drink water and help other people drink water in speech and debate?" Faith Duncan asked Laural Kurth.

"Hydrate or die-drate," Kurth replied.

"Do you swear to be upright and proud and strong for your team?" Lukas Bagshaw asked Mason Tollefson.

"Yes," Tollefson answered firmly.

The ceremony concluded with comments from the team's coaches, two of whom will be leaving this year. Assistant Coach RaNae Johnson will be leaving after coaching for nine years, and Head Coach Dan Parson will be leaving after coaching for 20 years. While they reflected on their gratitude for their time coaching, both coaches focused the attention back on the students, acknowledging the growth they saw among the team members and encouraging them to continue with what they've learned.

Johnson said the team truly is like a family, and the members love and support each other. She also noted she especially loves watching team members work hard and persevere and finally have break-through moments.

"I think what I love most about this program is that after four years of hard work and dedication, kids leave as beautiful butterflies, transformed from ordinary caterpillars," Johnson said.

She shared one of her favorite quotes from Maya Angelou: "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

"Life is full of ups and downs and opportunities for change," Johnson added. "So I hope that as you look back on your time with speech and debate, that you'll recognize and acknowledge where those changes have come from."

Parson said as he was deciding what to talk about, he wanted to share something wise and interesting, but his thoughts just kept returning to the old claymation film "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

"In that story, there's this place called the Island of Misfit Toys," Parson said.

He explained that this island is a safe place for toys that are a little different, that believe no child would want to play with them, that don't see themselves as pieces that matter. Parson turned it over to the team for the response that all the members said in unison:

"All the pieces matter."

"This team has become a little bit like that island," Parson continued.

He explained that speech and debate is a safe place for students who might feel like they don't belong anywhere else.

"So as I drift off into the sunset, I have a favor to ask of you, a challenge for you," Parson told the team. "You need to go find misfit toys. They come in all sorts of sizes and shapes, so you might have to look really, really hard. But go find the kids running around Green River High School that need this team."

Parson noted that all kinds of different kids need to be part of speech and debate, but they probably won't join on their own, so the current team members have to be the ones to reach out.

"Go find them," Parson said. "Find the geeks and the nerds and the jocks and the gamers and the criminals and the weird and the funny and the beautiful and the abandoned and the forgotten. Do it now, and do it for the rest of your life. Because they need us. And we need them. Because we are them."

Returning to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Parson pointed out that the misfit toys don't always continue to think their pieces don't matter.

"The misfit toys ultimately learn to accept themselves," he said. "They rejoice and they sing and they dance in their own bizarre eccentricity. They surrender to what is, to what they are, and they come to see that together, all of their pieces matter and that the world is a far more interesting place because they are in it. They learn that ultimately accepting love from another human being is virtually impossible without the dignity that that important lesson provides. The misfit toys are pieces that matter. You are pieces that matter. I am a piece that matters. And you have taught me this, guys." 

To end the night, the coaches were called back to the front, where hundreds of green and black balloons rained down on them from above, representing the students whose lives have been changed by their influence through speech and debate.