Last week, Speech and Debate students traveled to Center to compete in the a National Speech and Debate Association qualifying tournament, striving for a shot to compete in Birmingham, Alabama this summer. Events ranged from various interpretation events to debate.

This was the third year for BHS students to compete at the qualifying meet. Last year they sent their first students, Evan Grisham and Kendall Morales in CX, to the national meet. This year they jumped from two students in one event to four students in three, and additionally have several alternates. National qualifiers this year include Lilah Adams in Big Question Debate, Colby Menefee in Informative Speaking, and Tate Slaughter and Zach White in Duo. Alternated are Sheri Donaldson and Tana Cleveland in Duo, Colby Menefee in Congress, and Evan Grisham in International Extemp.

“This year, we have more students qualifying for nationals than we had entries two years ago,” Menefee said. “I’m very proud of how the program has grown, and I attribute that success to the students’ hard work.”

According to their classmates, one of the best parts of Zach and Tate’s advancing is the fact that this is their first year to compete in the speech program. Both students are seniors, and they both say that while it is sad they will no longer compete next year, nationals definitely a good way to end their high school experience.

“It is very exciting to be able to advance to a higher level,” Slaughter said. “I’m ready to put in more work and go out there and compete.”

Freshman Colby Menefee, who competed in POI as well as Informative and Congress, competed at nationals at the junior high level last year, so he knew the competition would be stiff.

“Although it was my first year competing at the high school level, I was prepared for the competition,” Menefee said. “We all worked very hard in class and were focused, knowing that it wouldn’t be easy, especially with our competition being very talented.”

A new type of debate was introduced to the national qualifying competition this year: Big Question Debate. Despite the fact that none of the BHS students had competed in the event before, junior Lilah Adams jumped at the chance to try when the opportunity arose. Literally two hours before the rounds began, Lilah read about the event online and started working with the coaches and other students to put together her arguments and materials.

“I never thought I would go to nationals, especially in an event that I had never heard about,” Adams said. “I was so grateful that I can compete with such a great team.”

All of the students who attended for BHS competed in multiple events and multiple rounds of each event. Even students who did not feel like they had a shot a nationals in the beginning saw improvement in their performances.

“We were very surprised at how we did. We were not aware that we had the ability or the talent,” sophomore Sheri Donaldson said of her Duo piece with Tana Cleveland. “However, now that we know we are capable of competing at that level, we are ready to put in extra work to improve and hopefully next year qualifying to Nats.”

The students said that while they have fun and enjoy themselves at the competitions, they are there to work and the results show. Competition is not over for them; they will spend the next month preparing for district UIL and hope to advance to state in multiple events, plus there is now a national competition to get ready for.

“I’m super excited; I can’t wait for June to come,” White said. “Not only am I ready to compete, I’m also ready to crush some competition.”