Speech students headed to nationals

Members of the Hot Springs County High School Speech and Debate Team are preparing for their performances at the National Tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The duet team of Amanda Dinsmore and Eryn Robinson will depart with coach, Cindy Glasson, on Saturday for the week long tournament.

“This is the culmination of the speech season and their speech careers,” Glasson said. “They will be competing against students from all over the country and several foreign countries, across seven venues, for an entire week. It’s stressful beyond imagination, but they make friends from across the country and get the chance to compete against the best of the best.”

Originally, the team had qualified three students for Nationals this year, however, a prior commitment with the Daniel’s Scholarship prevents Kameron Olsen from being able to attend.

As for Dinsmore and Robinson, Glasson said she’d made a prediction at the beginning of the season that the girls would be attending the National Tournament.

“Anyone who has seen their performance would agree,” Glasson said. “This is the most intense piece with a historical background and these girls give it everything they have every time they perform. I’m really excited to see what they do at Nationals.”

Glasson said she would really like to thank the organizations and individuals that have helped fund this once in a lifetime trip.

Anyone wishing to view the finals live, may do so via the internet at http://livestream.com/Nats16Stream1. Live streams of the final events will become available beginning on Thursday, June 16 at 1 p.m. If the Bobcats make finals, they will be live at approximately 8:30 p.m. Thursday.