Speech and debate team competes in tournaments
GRAVETTE — Members of the speech and debate team at Gravette High School have been busy competing in tournaments. Despite the social isolation which resulted from the pandemic, these students have competed virtually against teams from a number of schools.
Team sponsor Jacki Rieff explained that Gravette students compete each year to gain points to enter the National Speech and Debate Association. They must acquire 25 points and earn a 3.0 or higher grade point average to join.
Points are earned through competitions and service projects. All students but one were new this year so they had much earning to do.
Senior Conner LaBrecque has earned a total of 131 points over a three-year period. Zeke Surface, a freshman, is the top earner this year with 96 points, most of which he has earned by winning at tournaments.
Students competed in the Rogers Heritage virtual tournament on Dec. 3-4, 2021, in Student Congress, Program of Interpretation, Poetry, Prose and Oratory. Prince Gabriel-Hall won second place and Cameron Mejia won third place in Program of Interpretation. Zeke Surface held the honorable Presiding Officer position in the Student Congress session.
A face-to-face tournament at Dardanelle High School in January was canceled due to bad weather and because many judges and students in the state had covid issues. The weather even prevented a virtual tournament so Gravette students participated in a mock Student Congress with a team from Midland, Texas. Video events in oratory, poetry, prose and interpretation were also sent to Jenks, Okla., for judging feedback.
Students attended an in-person tournament at Bentonville West on Feb. 4-5. Four poetry entrants, Mari Nelson, Shelby Spiva, Lia Thomason and Sophia Gillespie, and two oratory entrants, Adrian Mejia and Nicholas Vang, made it through three rounds out of five rounds of competition that weekend.
Six students, Zeke Surface, Cameron Moore, Hunter Griffith, Jerri Notestine, Nicholas Vang and Nash Mallard, competed in Student Congress. Each GHS student went through two of three two-hour sessions of Congress at Bentonville West, and Zeke Surface was a finalist in the top 25%.
Because of tournament cancellations, students needed more points to qualify for NSDA membership so they participated in a Feb. 14 tournament hosted in Loveland, Colo., called “My Cupid Shot Me in After School Congress.” This was a five-hour virtual tournament in which students stayed after school and used live stream video to debate students from various states, including Washington, California, Colorado, Utah and Illinois. Prince GabrielHall, Sophia Gillespie, Jerri Notestine, Hunter Griffith, Aidan Kowalski, Nash Mallard, Cameron Moore, Shelby Spiva, Zeke Surface, Harlon Thurlo and Nicholas Vang competed and all were ranked in the top 25%.
Rieff also congratulated Cameron Moore and Zeke Surface for making it through three rounds of Congress at the Har-Ber High School in-person tournament.
The school’s sixth annual Marshall Spalter Cup Tournament was held Feb. 18-20 in Springdale. Cameron placed in the top 30 and Zeke placed sixteenth out of 182 students. Both students were honored to be chosen as presiding officers, one in the House and one in the Senate sessions.
National Speech and Debate Association Regionals were held virtually Feb. 24-28. Only students who had earned NSDA membership were allowed to compete. Zeke Surface, Hunter Griffith, Conner LaBreque and Cameron Moore qualified from the GHS team. Zeke and Cameron were both speakers in the final round and barely missed an invitation to Nationals. They have been invited to compete as a “wild card” in May to qualify for Nationals. At the May invitational, they will compete against students from throughout the nation who didn’t qualify for a position.
Hunter Griffith, Adrien Mejia, Cameron Moore and Zeke Surface qualified for the National Speech and Debate Association district competition. Zeke advanced to the finals as the only freshman and placed ninth in the district. Students were competing against Don Tyson Innovation High School, Bentonville High School, Sylvan Hills High School, Fayetteville High School, Bentonville West High School, Episcopal Collegiate High School, Russellville High School, Jonesboro High School and Cabot High School, some of the strongest teams in the nation.
Cameron Moore, Hunter Griffith and Zeke Surface gave a presentation at the March 14 meeting of the Gravette School Board. Zeke gave a speech that was given during competition as an example of their work.
Rieff reported that many students on the team have the responsibility of doing research and mock judging rather than attending tournaments and doing speaking. Many of them attend practices after school each week for three to four hours from September through March. Some are in the forensic course offered at Gravette High School while others prepare as club members without being enrolled in a class.
“Way to go, team!” Rieff concluded.