Speech and Debate Competes in Tough Tournament on Saturday

On a cold early morning this past Saturday, Palisade’s Speech and Debate team boarded the bus headed to Battle Mountain High School. With a long two hour bus ride the team was ready to compete against some tough competition.

Throughout the day, competitors compete in all different forms of Debate and Speech events. For example some might do theatrical interps, which is acting out a scene they’ve been preparing for all week. Others might compete in debates like Public Forum, a two-on-two debate over one topic. Each student on the Palisade team has worked hard this far in the season and are just getting started!

Some stand out speakers from the day include Annika Walla, who was a superior speaker in Congress. Ava Pearson 1st in Impromptu. Kiera Stephens, Maya McDaniel (6th), Keegan Seymour, Ian Allen (4th), in Public Forum. So many more Bulldogs did incredible things this week and all of us can’t wait to see where they take the rest of the season.

I spoke to the team on Wednesday, with Team Captain Annika Walla stating, “I think that overall our team fid really good this last Saturday, I think we did have some struggles, however overall we did have quite a few people who placed, especially some of our new novices, which is really impressive just as a team.” When I asked them about how they felt going into their tournament this Saturday at Fruita, Co-Captain Kennedy Stephens stated, “I think going into Fruita, we learned a lot last weekend and I think we can all bring that into this weekend on Saturday.” We wish the team the best of luck as they continue to build and get better with every day!