MHS Debate team goes to nationals

After a successful year of competitions including region and state, Morgan High School Debate team had the opportunity to go the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA - speechanddebate.org) High School Speech and Debate NATIONAL Championship Tournament which was held July 11-15 in Phoenix, Arizona.  

With more than 6,000 competitors at the event, the competition for MHS students was high. Those students included sophomore, Jaqsyn Rudd and junior Bryan Justice (BJ) Hone who qualified in Duo-Interpretation as a main event. They each competed in supplemental events as well: Jaqsyn in impromptu and original poetry and BJ in impromptu. 

“I really quite enjoyed the whole experience,” commented BJ. “The people were all really nice, and I learned a lot from them; not just about speech events, but also how to speak to people in a new way. It was really fun.”

With the MHS duo team qualifying for nationals, the team was able to bring two additional students to nationals, so MHS Debate coach Blaine Hone decided that since freshman Bryson Hone and sophomore Tomara Snodgrass, who scored the most NSDA points during the national qualifying tournament, they would also go to nationals. Bryson competed in impromptu and original poetry and Tomara competed in impromptu and prose reading. 

“It was really cool to see the top people in each of the events and pretty fun, overall a great experience, ” Tomara said.

While each Morgan students placed in the top 50% in each of their events, which included hundreds sometimes thousands of other students, Morgan students were not in the top 60 students who went on to the tournament’s late-stage break rounds.

"National debate was a completely new experience for me. But to go and represent Morgan at such a high level was a great honor. Our team may not have done the best this year, but our team is already prepping to go and win next year!

Blaine commented that Morgan's presence at nationals represents a rather momentous event in the legacy that he would like to build for Morgan's Speech and Debate. "This is the first year we have reached nationals since the school canceled Speech and Debate classes and designated ours as an after-school-only program,” said Blaine. “With a growing number of interested participants each year, and a stronger performance at region, state, and now nationals, I have extremely high hopes in what these talented youth can do for this program, the school, but most of all for themselves and their own futures.”

Along with his wife, Lisa who is the assistant coach and chaperone, Blaine took the students to horseshoes bend, the Grand Canyon, and four corners. “We saw our team get well out of their comfort zone both in speaking and in exploring new areas of our country,” said Blaine. “Nationals built experiences for these kids that will help them throughout their life.”

Students funded their own travel and all tournament fees and other costs of participation at the national tournament. The team will have exciting fund-raising activities in the near future. “The community’s participation and contributions to support these dedicated students—as well as the next group of potential national qualifiers—will surely be greatly appreciated,” said Blaine. λ