Speechsters do well at Jackson

With just two tournaments left before State and National Qualifiers, the Bobcat Speech and Debate team had a good showing at the Jackson Tournament last weekend, winning third place in the small schools division.

Three members of the team were unable to make the trip due to illness or conflicting engagements, but the remaining six showed they are absolutely ready for the remainder of the season.

“Every member of the team made semi-finals with the exception of one,” coach Cindy Glasson said, “and she missed it by a single point.”

Reilly Russell, with her poetry selections on dinosaurs, broke into semi-finals before being eliminated.

“Everyone loves her piece,” coach Glasson said. “Its so completely different than everything else they see. Most of the poetry is dark and dreary, but Reilly’s is cheerful and very kid friendly. It makes her piece stand out from the rest.”

Stepping outside her comfort zone, Breeze Petty also competed in poetry for the weekend instead of her usual PF debate.

“Her debate partner was ill this weekend, so we had to scramble a bit to find another event for her,” Glasson said. “She chose to do selections from the musical ‘Hamilton’, which is really hot right now.

“Breeze did an amazing job with just three days of practice. She missed semi-finals by just one point — on three days practice. I can’t imagine what she’s going to be able to do with a solid two weeks of rehearsals before we go to Greybull.”

Ashley Brawley and Courtney Jeunehomme also made it to semi-finals with their duet, “The End to Nuclear Proliferation.”

“These two have had some ups and downs with this piece,” Glasson said. “Its definitely timely – the heads of two countries discussing elimination of their warheads – but its been a tough piece for them to find consistency with.

“Courtney is finding her space now and this weekend really solidified what they can do.”

Brawley also made semi-finals with her humor piece, a lighthearted look at the different crayons in the box.

“Ashley has a very good repertoire of voices,” coach Glasson said. “This piece lets her showcase those voices by having a different one for every color in the box. We’ll smooth this one up over the next two weeks and I have no doubt she’ll excel with it.”

Hannah Hu is another team member that has had ups and downs with her oratory, but Glasson has seen consistent improvement in her scores.

“The first tournament is always a big shock,” Glasson said. “Hannah went in with a great oratory, but her first outing with the team was a little disappointing. The Kelly Walsh meet was huge so her lower scores were not really surprising to me.

“The next tournament, Natrona, was just as big as Kelly Walsh and Hannah improved her standings by four entire places. That showed me she was really going in the right direction, and this weekend in Jackson proved that.”

Hu made it all the way to finals, bringing home fourth place in oratory for the Bobcats.

Aaron Hanson made Jackson his first official tournament after splitting his time between speech and the robotics team.

“Aaron is one of those kids that gets me really excited about his future in speech,” Glasson said. “At the last minute, he decided to double at Jackson, doing both drama and POI.”

Drama is a typical event in speech, but POI (Programmed Oral Interpretation) has only been recognized by the National Speech and Debate Association for two years. Very few tournaments have POI added to their event list, but it is on the schedule for the state tournament and National Qualifiers in March.

“Aaron didn’t do as well with his drama piece,” Glasson said. “It was a last minute decision to let him compete with it, but here again, with two weeks before our next outing I’m sure we’re going to get all the kinks worked out.”

Hanson did much better in POI, bringing home a second place win.

“He (Hanson) has been working really hard on his POI,” Glasson said. “The premise behind POI is to take two or three different pieces and put them all together into one. He’s taken bits from a play, excerpts from a book and even song lyrics and put them together to create a look at serial killers – how they go from torturing small animals to the ultimate victim, man.”

Glasson said the reaction from the judges to Hanson’s piece made for an interesting read.

“His ballots really made me grin,” she said. “Aaron touched them exactly the way we hoped. Comments ranged from ‘really creepy’ to ‘intriguing and scary all at the same time’. That’s what we were shooting for.

“Aaron has this way of acting that is neat to watch. One element is the serial killer, the other, the voice in his head. He plays both with amazing accuracy.

“When he looks at the judge on his last line its totally creepy. It really sticks with you.”

The team will travel to Greybull Feb. 24 and 25, then to Worland the following weekend before the State Tournament in Green River March 9-11.