Team closes the book

Sonja Karp
NLJ Reporter
 
Not for the first time this year, the Newcastle Speech and Debate Team grappled with Mother Nature last Thursday as they set out for the State Meet in Riverton. Scheduled for a 6:00 am departure, a late start declaration for school in Newcastle kept them from leaving until 10:00. 
Unfortunately, the four hour delay meant
the team missed out on the first round of competition, thus impeding their abilities to break into finals.
“Missing the first round put us in a severe handicap,” head coach Jim Stith frowned. “When we showed up, round two was already underway and our kids were immediately ushered to where they needed to be, hoping the round hadn’t been completed.”
Arriving late and being thrust into an ongoing round was challenging to say the least, especially in an event where composure and confidence is the key to success. Though the team did their best to overcome those obstacles, only two teams of students managed to secure any honors on the day.
Austyn Vaughn and John Barker were able to snag eighth place in the 3A division in Duet while Markie Whitney and Shelby Davis finished third in 3A in Public Forum Debate.
Whitney and Davis were one of only four 3A teams to break into octofinals in their event. Unlike other high school activities, at the state tournament there is no class division when it comes to competition. Therefore, teams from 1A to 4A go up against each other in their quest to break into finals. Stith pointed out that just breaking into the out-rounds against those 4A schools is impressive, especially considering the team missed the first round.
“Markie and Shelby split a panel of three judges to end up in third place for 3A. The rest of the debaters that broke into out rounds were from 4A powerhouses like Cheyenne East and Green River,” Stith explained. “The one thing that made Markie and Shelby really happy was that they beat Nelson and Spicher from Kelly Walsh. That was a team to beat all season since they took first at the Cheyenne Invitational back in November. Markie and Shelby hit them in the preliminary rounds and won hands down.”
In Congress, Newcastle had some kids get ranked in different rounds, but not high enough to break because of missing the first round. Whitney was able to pick up a second place ranking when she was the presiding officer of one of her rounds, however.
Stith commented that consistency was a problem throughout the tournament.
“Some of our students ran hot and cold on the day,” he began. “They would get fifth or sixth and then all of a sudden get second in a round so that was a little frustrating.”
As the last meet of the season the team will say goodbye to Barker, who is the only senior, and turn their sights to next season, which Stith believes will be promising.
“It was a good growing year for us, and I’ve been very pleased with the students for their effort as well as their professional conduct this season,” he began. “We won some sweepstakes awards and had some good individual victories. As a team, we are fairly young with several freshmen and the core of the team are sophomores and juniors who will be moving into leadership positions. Though we are sad to see John go, I’m really excited to see what next year brings.”