Speech and Debate kids devote many hours a month to competing in tournaments on Saturdays. Here is a closer look at what these tournament days look like.
Members on the team wake up anywhere from 5:00-6:00 in the morning since they have to be at the school by 6:30 to load buses and leave for whatever school is hosting the tournament. The teammates also must make sure they have an account with Speechwire Live in order to be signed up and ready to compete.
Once the team arrives at the school they will find a table in the cafeteria to wait at until their rounds start. Usually, students will wander off to practice their speeches before they have to compete.
When the tournament starts, students will get blasted* and go find the room number that they were texted to compete in. Speech rounds usually last about one hour while debate rounds last two hours.
This process lasts for three rounds with members usually getting blasted right after their previous round finishes and sometimes even before they are done with their last round.
After rounds finish, the team comes back to the lobby to wait for all the categories to finish and awards to commence. Usually the team will play games to pass the time or just chat and listen to music.
Before awards officially begin, the team will rush to the auditorium to get seats before the big teams take all of the good seats. Once everyone has got a seat and reserved seats for Miss Cooney and anyone whose round has run over the team waits around 30-45 minutes for awards to officially begin. Different speeches will be announced to receive an award by calling up the top six from a category and announcing the winners from sixth to first. They then call up the next category to wait in the wings and the top three novices* are called from third to first. This process repeats until each group has been called. It is customary to stand up and cheer rather than just clap when first place is announced since it is a high decoration.
After awards the team will get team pictures and individual pictures for placements and then reload the buses to head back to the school. On the bus Miss Cooney will share out team highlights from the tournament before actual schematics* are released and congratulate everyone. Then the bus will drop everyone off at the school and they will return home.
I hope you enjoyed your day as a speech and debate teammate and appreciate the insight into the behind the scenes of the team.
Footnotes:
1. Blasted: to receive a text message from Speechwire Live that has your assigned number, your room number, and the number that you are in line to speak.
2. Novice: a beginner to speech and debate competitions.
3. Schematics: statistics from the competition rounds.
