Snow block speech and debate from state

This past Friday, the Palisade Speech and Debate team boarded the bus headed for state. Unfortunately, they would be turned around after just a few hours because of Interstate closures. The team had worked hard all season and was greatly disappointed to not be able to compete. However, some of our team will compete in the 5A state tournament later this month in Denver. 

The team had originally planned to leave the school at 6 in the morning and arrive in Colorado Springs by 1, and then be ready for the first rounds of competition at 4:30. However, with much snow, school was delayed two hours that day, and so was the trip. The bus ended up leaving Palisade at 8 and getting right on the road. They drove a few hours until they hit Gypsum. It was there they discovered that Vail Pass had been closed and the team wouldn’t be able to go through the original route. The bus was stopped in Gypsum for two hours waiting for instructions from Hawkins and the District. 

After a lot of communication with the competition organizers, it was clear they were going to miss the first rounds, thus putting them at a major disadvantage for the rest of the tournament. The district decided that it would be best if the team turned around. However the trip wasn’t a complete failure, both the Palisade and Central speech and debate teams went bowling and got dinner together before heading home. I spoke with the Speech and Debate team captain, Annika Walla, who had this to say, “I was definitely really really disappointed just because it’s a great opportunity for competition, so I was really sad we weren’t able to go.” 

Luckily, the team is still ready for tough competition later in the month with National Qualifiers at CMU.