Agree to disagree: Owasso Speech and Debate is #1
By McKenna Worsham
A decently hidden treasure at OHS, the Speech and Debate team is proving itself to be one of Owasso’s most competitive electives. This small group of students gets the chance, in class with the brilliant Ms. Dodge, to learn all about the intricacies of Speech and Debate and can display those talents at tournaments throughout the year.
The team excelled at their tournament in Jenks, taking many individual awards, as well as 4th in Prose, 3rd in FEX (foreign extemporaneous) and 1st place in DEX (domestic extemporaneous)!
Prior to the tournament, Ms. Dodge expressed so much passion and excitement for her students who were preparing their speeches just next door.
“[Competitions] are just a lot of fun…it's not too stressful. It's just fun for them; they like to do it,” Dodge gladly explains.
These students are not only exceptional debaters but they are also responsible for writing all of their own speeches for competitions. As a group, they go to about 10 events a year–excluding state and national competitions.
With little time to prepare for their given competition topics, these students work extremely hard, writing and practicing their debates day after day, hoping to end their tournaments feeling triumphant.
Senior co-captain Kendall Welborn expresses the team’s extreme dedication, “The biggest thing is getting [the team] prepared…there’s a lot of growing pains…[in class] mostly it’s just doing practice rounds.”
As team co-captains, Welborn and Will Erhart take on a leadership role and use their experience as fourth-year debate veterans to further help their teammates in class and ensure success in their events.
Erhart further explains their positions as captains and leaders on the team.
“A lot of times we just listen to them perform their events…and help give them feedback”.
The Speech and Debate team went home feeling successful and proud as ever after the tournament.
“It was good, it was really really fun!” Welborn exclaims.
“We’re really proud of everyone…everyone who went made it onto the final rounds, so this is kind of a big step for us…we’ve had a lot of change and variants, so being able to do well at tournaments is new and [exciting],” Erhart reveals.
With differing coaches and students moving in and out of the debate classroom, COVID-19 restrictions and even online debates, Welborn and Erhart have found stability and faith in this new class of debaters.
“We’re super proud of the retaining members too that we have seen…we didn’t know what the future was gonna look like, so to have everybody come and do very well is really great as a whole for the program!” Welborn gleams, extremely grateful for her team.
The whole team beams with pride and excitement for the future of Speech and Debate, as is evident from their captains. Looking forward to the rest of the speech season this year, they are all working hard to reach their end goals of the state and nationwide tournaments.
The co-captains sum up overwhelming feelings of delight for their team with a short sentiment about Speech and Debate.
“We love it!” Welborn and Erhart declare.
As they go further in their 2022-23 season, they will only make OHS more proud. Head to the next debate tournament and watch fellow students excel as a part of this powerhouse that is the OHS Speech and Debate team.
Photo of Speech and Debate team taken by Allison Dodge.
Photo of Speech and Debate team taken by Allison Dodge.
Photo of Speech and Debate team taken by Allison Dodge