On Oct. 14 and 15 the FHN Speech and Debate team will go to their first competition of the year. They will compete against multiple schools in the Saint Louis area at Parkway West High School.

“I believe the tournament will go well this weekend,” junior Caitlind Walker said. “We have quite a few experienced people and a lot of new novices, so it will be exciting to see how the year will start off.”

The competition at Parkway West marks the beginning of the six month season for the Speech and Debate team. Members of the team will go through two preliminary rounds of speech before semifinals and finals, then four preliminary rounds of debate followed up with semifinals, quarterfinals and finals. This year’s competition is giving the novice’s a good sense of what the Speech and Debate team is really about. It will also give the varsity speakers a chance to “shake off the rust.”

“This year we have a lot of good returning members, but we also have a lot of new members,” senior Audrey Baker said.

This year’s speech and debate team have much to look forward to. The team has had a large increase in novice’s and a new coaching member. Patrick Vaughn is a new member on the coaching team. The coaches and students are confident in this upcoming season. Compared to last year’s Speech and Debate team, the team was much smaller with a low number of novice’s.

“Compared to last year, we have a larger number of novice team members, and we are very pleased to have added Dr. Patrick Vaughn, who has a doctoral degree in Theatre, to our coaching staff,” coach Randy Pierce said. “I am confident that he will be a valuable resource for our students competing in oral interpretation events.”