14-hour tournaments. Polished speeches. Irrefutable cases.

This is Rocky Mountain Speech and Debate.

The Rocky  Speech and Debate team goes to many tournaments. As the season comes to an end, members reflect upon their season.

There are typically 3 big tournaments in the season- District Speech and Debate and National Qualifiers.  Qualifiers can move to the next level. Nat Quals qualifiers get to go to nationals while District qualifiers get to move on to State.

National qualifications this year was a three-day long tournament, which resulted in 5 of Rocky’s competitors going to Iowa for nationals-

Their only senior- Claudia Dunlop, made it to quarterfinals for Public Forum, finals for House, and made it to Nationals for International Extemporaneous Speaking.

The Juniors: Aleigh Holmes made it as a quarterfinalist for Public Forum, finals for Informative Speaking, and is heading to Nationals for Senate. Myah Oswald was a quarterfinalist in Public Forum. Olivia Lanzara made it to quarters for Public Forum as well and was a finalist in Inform.

The Sophomores: Luci Dean was a finalist in House and is going to Nationals for US Extemporaneous Speaking, while Mac Holmes similarly made it to finals for US Extemp but is going to nationals for Big Questions.

The Freshmen: The freshmen (and others who compete for the first year) are called novices. Often, these competitors tend to get underestimated and must prove themselves to be worthy opponents. All competing freshmen broke into elimination rounds. Emma Atkinson was a house finalist, Parker Myler a finalist in Dramatic Interpretation, Hafsah Mohammed an Original Oratory finalist, and Rosie Hines was a Public Forum quarterfinalist with her partner, Samantha Clark, who is also going to Nationals for Original Oratory.

Moving on to District Speech-

Jamie Tuccinardi, Mohammed, and Lanzara, qualified in impromptu. Mac Holmes and Dunlop, both qualified in sales and made it to State as well.

Clark and Dean both qualified in Extemporaneous Speaking, where Dean took second in the state.

Mohammed, Clark, Dean, and Oswald made it past District Speech for Original Oratory and into State Speech, with both freshmen breaking to semi-finals and Oswald being a State Finalist.

Oswald and Jocey Bjorkman, both juniors along with Myler, qualified in Retold. Bjorkman made it to semi-finals and Oswald secured yet another win for Rocky becoming a double state finalist in retold as well.

At State Speech in Jerome, quite a few of the Rocky competitors were the only ones from the team competing in that event.  Aleigh Holmes, being Rocky’s only Inform qualifier, Atkinson in Radio, and Myler in Dramatic Interpretation. Though they were the only ones from the team competing in their events, and they didn’t disappoint, all placing as semi-finalists in their own respective events.

A few members of the team also qualified to go to State Debate which was hosted at Middleton High School.

Boston Young and Tuccinardi made it to state this year in LD while Lanzara, Aleigh Holmes, Oswald, and Dunlop made it to State Debate in Public Forum, with Oswald and Dunlop making it to quarterfinals in Public Forum.

The Rocky Speech and Debate team isn’t just close to the big trophy, though,  cheesy as it is, they’re also close with each other.

Myah Oswald, junior, says:

“It was [personally] a really good way to end the season because my speech meant everything to me, so to have closure surrounded by all the people I love so much meant everything to me and I’m so sad that this season is over and I have to say goodbye to our [well, just one] senior. In the end, it really was a testament to how hard we’ve worked. I personally got the pleasure of going both to State Speech and Debate and I felt incredibly supported. The end of the year gets hard because you have to keep qualifying to keep competing.”

When asked to compare their novice season to their third season, Oswald said: “My first season, I felt more detached, [and] I think that standing up in a more specific role makes me feel like it’s family. I know it’s such a cliché answer, but at the end of the day, these are the people that I’m spending hours and hours with. We eat together, they see me sleep under tables and it means everything [to me].

So, I think, comparison- Of course, I’ve gotten better, but I’ve also grown closer to the community, [and] it’s become more central in my life because I figured out where I belong. I invest everything into it, and I’ve earned so much back.”

They talk about the amount of effort that goes into writing a speech and how, though it can get stressful at times, the reward is itself and worth it.

Freshman Samantha Clark shares the sentiment saying: “The biggest thing that I’ve took away from this season is being able to walk into a room and get to use my voice and get to share something that I care about and I want to talk about… it was nice to have an opportunity to be heard. No matter how much work that took, it was something that a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to do and that was the best thing that I gained from the experience.”

Clark gives us these parting words about joining the team:

“Just give it a shot, you don’t have to commit forever and it’s a really good opportunity. If there’s anything that you are passionate about, this is a platform for you to genuinely share that. It’s a community of people that are going to welcome you no matter what.”

From the members of the team:

“Rock on Rocky!!”

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