On Feb. 17 and 18, the speech and debate team competed at the Marquette Invite held at Marquette high school. They competed against 31 other schools from Missouri and Illinois and came away with several award winners. This was the team’s last tournament before the District tournament.

“This tournament wasn’t any different, but because this was our last tournament before Districts, we saw it as an opportunity to perfect our pieces and strategies,” junior Amber Pryor said. “We definitely had bonding time as a team. We also learned a lot by watching each other. I think, based on this weekend and past ones, that we will be competitive at Districts.”

Many awards were obtained during this competition. Some big standouts included sophomore Riley Lawson getting first place in the Program of Oral Interpretation event, junior Amber Pryor, senior Bryce Fletcher earning first place in Open Public Forum debate and Fletcher achieving the “I Speak for Others” Award, which is given to a student who has demonstrated a willingness to speak out for social justice in real life settings.

“For speech events, I think everyone gave it their all and it paid off in the end, and for debate the same thing,” Lawson said. “I liked watching the finals round for Regular Public Forum and being able to watch our teammates win the tournament for that event.”

With this tournament over and the season winding down, the team looks towards the District tournament. The team is always looking for new additions, especially with a new season on the horizon.

“I hope that if there are any students that are interested or just curious about speech and debate, that they contact the activities office or a member of the speech and debate team,” head coach Randy Pierce said. “We are always looking to get more students involved and we believe that our activity is beneficial for everybody and everybody can improve by being involved.”