The SVHS Speech and Debate team kicked off their varsity season at their first tournament of 2025. The team traveled to Idaho State University on January 3 and 4 to compete at the Blacksnake NIETOC tournament against other competitors from Idaho, Utah, and Montana. This is one of the biggest tournaments that the Speech and Debate team attends all season (the others being Districts/National Qualifiers and State), and having it as the first varsity tournament can be nerve wracking for the novices and a good competitive boost for the varsity members of the team.
This was the team’s first tournament since late November, and it was definitely a test of whether or not members could remember their scripts or cases. Senior Fennec Burton said, “As for not having looked at my script for a while and having forgotten bits of it, it was a little nerve wracking, but I can memorize scripts pretty easyily, so after I read over it a few times before my round it wasn’t an issue.” As scary as it was to be thrown back into competition, the team quickly adapted and got back into the tournament flow.
NIETOC was first time novices had to compete in varsity categories against experienced Speech and Debate competitors. Junior Taggart Ivie joined the team this year to compete in humorous interpretation with his script Beetlejuice. “It was pretty scary competing in my first varsity tournament, but I had friends in almost every round, and that helped take away some of the unwanted stress. When I learned I broke to semis, I was overjoyed and surprised in my own skills,” said Ivie. He was one of four members of the team who broke to semifinals, wa huge deal considering how big the tournament was.
Sophomore Bailey Sperry and junior Marie Bateman also broke into semifinals in humor. Bateman ended up advancing to finals and took 3rd place overall in humor with her piece Al Literation, Private Eye by Forrest Musselman. Bateman said, “I was, of course, surprised I had gotten so high, especially with how many great competitors there was and how rare it was for Star Valley to break at ISU. I had already worked so hard to even break into finals, but getting third helps motivate me to work even harder to hopefully get higher in future tournaments.”
Although Sperry did not break to finals, she ended up getting the award for best small schools entry with her piece William Henry Bartholomew Smith, Consumer Advocate Vs. Low-Quality Paper Towel Perforations in America by Bradley Walton. This award meant a lot to Sperry. “I felt pretty good knowing I broke to semis at ISU and even better when I got that award. This award means a lot to me. I’ve been trying and working so hard to get a trophy since I started speech, knowing that my first trophy I got was at a big tournament and it was for the top smallest school competitor, so it meant so much to me,” she said.
Senior Mildred Hyde broke to supers in congress and received an award for participating in the chamber. Hyde said, “Idaho does congress wrong, so I don’t want to talk about it.” The team’s public forum debate (PF) team, freshmen Josey O’Donnell and Autumn Strgar won the award for best small schools entry. O’Donnell said, “Well, I was shocked that we got an award.”
Many of the varsity members of the team had a free debate panel and spent their off time helping judge novice debates, doing homework, or showing the novices some of their favorite pass times at ISU. Senior Emilio Torres, junior Marie Bateman, and sophomore Bailey Sperry judged several novice debate rounds. Torres said, “I judged about eight rounds and judging debates for me was a challenge since I prefer to judge speech because that is where I specialize and have more experience in so I felt like I was not giving out the best notes and tips for the debaters.”
Whenever they got a break from judging they took the time to hang out with the rest of the team. During off panels one is likely to see a gaggle of Speech and Debate kids playing a card game, having deep life conversations, or just joking around. The Speech and Debate team has a lot of fun at tournaments, whether or not they’re competing.
ISU is always a fun tournament, and it definitely marked the beginning of a great varsity season! Go Braves Speech and Debate!
