Speech team first at Star Valley tourney

Another successful weekend is in the books for the Hot Springs County High School Speech and Debate team as they brought home another first place in 1A/2A at the Star Valley tournament.

Previous to the Star Valley tournament, Jean-Luc Willson participated in the University of Wyoming Round Robin for debate on Thursday and Friday.

Willson’s event at the UW tournament was policy debate, an intense form of debate done with a partner. However, his partner had to drop out due to illness, and rather than forfeit the tourney, Willson decided to “maverick”, meaning he was doing two-man debate all on his own.

“The UW Round Robin tournament is an invite to the top five policy debate teams in the state, and it was an honor for Jean-Luc and Jacob (Randall) to be chosen to compete,” coach Lyle Wiley said. “Jacob was heartbroken that he was not able to make the debates due to illness, and Jean-Luc made the difficult choice to maverick the debates.

“Going solo in policy is a herculean feat that required Jean-Luc to read and prepare all of the parts of each debate against the tip-tier teams of debaters in Wyoming. He not only debated admirably, but won a debate as well. We are so proud of Jean-Luc and how much he has grown as a competitor and a leader for our team.”

The team took a huge hit with illness for the Star Valley tournament, whittling the team considerably, but it didn’t prevent them from showing they were competitive.

Willson placed fourth in extemp, his second event for the weekend, starting immediately after the UW tourney on Friday afternoon.

Elizabeth Keller, a freshman on the team, placed in the top 10 in extemp and participated in LD debate over the weekend as well.

“We were pretty shy on competitors this weekend, but that didn’t stop us from winning,” coach Cindy Glasson said. “We have this next weekend off, so that gives us time to finalize some of the work we’ve been doing on additional pieces, like a pair of duets, POI and other stuff.

“I can hardly wait to see what we do once we’re all healthy and up and running. We’re in the midst of a building year, but boy, these kids have a solid foundation already and its just going to get better.”

“The team was hit hard by illness and we were a small group for sure,” Wiley added. “But, the team came through with another competitive showing.

“We are seeing a lot of growth in our debaters this year, and our novices are making the steady improvements that you want to see over the course of the season. We also have some new students who will make some significant contributions in the interpretive side of things, so that will be exciting to watch in our future competitions.

“All in all, the team is in a good place to build towards our best competition when State and Districts hit in March.”

The team will be taking this weekend off before competing in the Jackson Tournament on February 4 and 5.