About Us

The Raptor Speech and Debate team is a values driven competitive event, that has shown immense growth and achieved competitive success in the short period of time that we have been established. Over the last 4 years, our team has grown from a small, but mighty, team of 30 to a team of 60 competitors. Due to this, we have competitors in every type of Speech and Debate event. We compete in four different types of debate, five different types of public speaking, and three different acting events. By having a myriad of different events, we have an incredibly diverse team from all different backgrounds with a variety of goals. However, because our team values a team first mentality, with a focus on team bonding, the Raptor Speech and Debate team feels like home to many and our student competitors feel like family. 

Though the Raptor Speech and Debate program is new to both the Montana and National circuits, it is highly competitive, as we have found success at both the State and National levels. Our team is incredibly talented and hard working, attributing success to the team philosophy of being process-driven and growth-oriented. Our competitors are constantly reflecting on how they can make improvements and achieve their goals, never shying away from a challenge, instead, welcoming it. The quote from John Wooden, Former coach of UCLA, and Wizard of Westwood, describes our team mentality best “The best competition I have is against myself to become better.” It is for this reason that our team was able to achieve the status of  Debate School of Honors at Nationals in 2023, an incredibly difficult feat and the highest honor achieved for Debate from any school from Montana, that year. We have had competitors consistently place in the top 8 at every Montana tournament, had Tournament event champions at each tournament in 2024, and also had the State Champions in Public forum debate in 2024. Historically, we have had immense success at the National Speech and Debate tournament as we have had competitors reach the second, fourth, and fifth elimination rounds in debate events. We have had a World Schools team place in the top 16 at Nationals, in 2024; a Lincoln-Douglas debater place 17th, at Nationals in 2023; a Public Forum team place 26th place in 2024 at Nationals, and another Public Forum team place 64th at Nationals, in 2023. We look forward to continued growth and development of our competitive team spirit and successes for years to come. 

For current information about our team, please follow us on Instagram: Raptor Speech and Debate Instagram Page