Speech and Debate ended its season with great success. Four students qualified for nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in June, including juniors Abhi Bhandari and Ryan Fairbanks, and seniors Colter Giem, and Macey Moyer. They also had eight alternate qualifiers, sophomore Seamas Porter, junior Mitch Chapman, sophomore Sam Garnett, freshman Carissa Sigler, sophomore Tessa Corcoran, and freshman Olivia Smith.  

“I’m pretty excited about nationals, there’s a lot of really good teams and I’m so excited to go up against that kind of competition.” Bhandari said. The team as a whole also did extremely well winning the District Sweepstakes Award for Congressional Debate, and the Leading Chapter Award.

Other achievements include junior Quinn Kamberos who qualified for finals in the Dramatic Interpretation category and placed 7th at the Rocky Mountain South NSDA qualifier at George Washington High School.

“Our speech kids did very well, over the regular season we got lots of victories in poetry, extemp, and drama. Eight people from speech qualified for state. Our PF debate teams placed in almost every tournament, and even though only one qualified for state, it was a very successful year.” Colter Giem said.

In addition to qualifying for nationals, Giem was also named student of the year. “I honestly didn’t think it would happen, I mean I didn’t even know I was up for consideration until my coach told me I’d won, and it’s an incredible honor. I’m just excited that all my hard work paid off! It’s a great feeling.”

“I expect [Giem] to do really well because of his experience and his four years being on the team,” Speech and Debate Coach Shannon Vance said. “Macey is also very strong because shes got a lot of enthusiasm and excitement.”

The qualifiers will join nearly 4,000 speech and debate students in Fort Lauderdale, FL. on June 17.

Photos courtesy of Shannon Vance