This past Friday and Saturday, a number of students from the Littleton speech and debate team were participating at the Regional State Qualifiers Tournament which was held at Thomas Jefferson High School.
“Everyone has been preparing all season for this tournament, and it really showed. Everyone that competed brought their A-game, and it was simply up to the judges to determine the results.”
Rebecca Zickerman
The Regional State Qualifiers Tournament is the tournament which students will compete and qualify to make it to state. The state tournament will be at the end of March at Cherokee Trail High School.
“I’d been in a rut for several tournaments, and learning from my mistakes was really frustrating, but really rewarding.”
Hayley Hamilton
Littleton had many students qualify for state. Virginia Frau qualified in Program Oral Interpretation, ElianaJoy Vollin in Poetry, Maddie Engeman in Informative Speaking, Addie Bouck and Ivy Secrest in Public Forum Debate, Hayley Hamilton in Lincoln Douglas Debate, Nick Hopper in Lincoln Douglas, and Rebecca Zickerman in Original Oratory.
The team put in many dedicated hours of work and perseverance to lead up until this point and achieve their goals. Team members have spent time memorizing what to say, diligent on their public speaking skills, and being earnest teammates to one another throughout the season.
In order to make it to state, it is a lot of hard work and effort. In speech, you have to be in the top three every round while on the other hand in debate, you have to win three out of four rounds. Many members of the team tried new events this year, which produced positive results.
“We don’t get to compete in fancy places, we’re just a bunch of kids in high school on a Saturday pursuing our passion.”
The team is all really proud of each other and what they have done this season, especially with the new members and captains.
Ivy Secrest