On January 31st and February 1st, Fair Grove High Speech and Debate hosted their tournament with 25 schools competing and around 60 volunteers from the local community judging.
Speech and Debate is an activity where in high school students compete in a range of debate and speaking competitions. Since Fair Grove hosts their own competition and event, they did not partake in their own competition.
Preparation for this event is started about three months before it takes place, and is organized by the high school team. Leroy Barker, the Fair Grove Theater Director as well as the coach for Speech and Debate stated, “They spend time in and out of class preparing all of the materials that will be needed for the tournament.”
Barker also mentioned that the High School Speech and Debate Team run the event which means that they, “… arrive at 6:00am the day of the tournament, work on various assigned duties for 14 hours, and clean up afterwards.”
Preston Hicks (11), a student at Fair Grove High School and the Speech and Debate President, explained, “The president is in charge of and oversees the team, is uplifting, leads warm ups, and other important team duties.”
A few of Preston’s achievements throughout his five years being involved with speech and debate are three first place trophies.
Emma Pearson (12), student at Fair Grove High School and the Publicist and a member of Speech and Debate stated “… I am responsible for taking photographs and promoting our team.”
Pearson is also on the varsity team, and at the hosted tournament was DI (dramatic interpretation) chair and Tab room chair. A few of her accomplishments this 2024-2025 season include taking first place at every tournament except for one throughout this season.
Some of the events that teams can compete in are memorized scripts, some of which are written by the competitors, others are non memorized binder events. Interpretation events, DI is dramatic, HI (humorous interpretation) is humorous, and both POI (program oral interpretation) and duo can be either humorous or dramatic.
There is also prose and poetry which are read out loud, radio speaking, and storytelling which is where you perform a kids book while seated in a chair.
In tournaments students are offered the chance to practice useful life skills such as slowing their talking speed, improving their writing skills, as well as growing their confidence with public speaking.
At the conclusion of the hosted Fair Grove Annual Speech and Debate tournament, all competitors met back in the commons area for an award ceremony. The people who are top three win trophies and top 4th through sixth win medals.
