Speech struggles at state

The Bobcat Speech and Debate team had a rough weekend at their State Tournament in Green River last week with two members of the team missing the break into semi-finals by a single point.

Reilly Russell, who has been doing a delightful selection of poems about dinosaurs, missed the break by one point.

"I know Reilly (Russell) was really disappointed," coach Cindy Glasson said. "This was her last performance of poetry for the year since it isn't included as a main event on the National level.

"What we're doing now, is getting her ready for National Qualifiers this weekend with a completely new drama piece to give her the opportunity to qualify for Nationals. She's going to have a rough couple of days as we work on the new piece, but she's definitely up for it."

Tyler Kay and Katie Burrows also missed the break by a single point with their duet piece.

"With duet they took the top 12 teams and Katie (Burrows) and Tyler (Kay) were number 13," Glasson said. "The kids kind of beat themselves up about missing by one point. I have to remind them they're very new to this, and to miss semi-finals by one point their freshman year is awesome."

Hannah Hu and Aaron Hanson also missed the break by just a few places in oratory and in drama.

"Hannah (Hu) and Aaron (Hanson) have been on stage regularly the past few meets, bringing home medals," Glasson said. "State was something of a test for them. Even though they didn't make the break, they absolutely held their own in a really tough field."

Ashley Brawley and Courtney Jeunehomme had a really rough weekend at state with their duet piece and Brawley had some issues with her humor piece as well.

"These girls are right on the cusp with their duet," said Glasson. "It's the time of year when everyone is just sick to death of doing the same pieces over and over. Remember, our season lasts five months so they're at the point where they've done this piece, probably 100 or more times.

"Now is the time when we have to work some fresh things into their pieces to bring a bit of life back to them. Characters are bigger. Voices are different. Blocking changes. They're all well memorized at this time, it's just the little things that make the difference."

Glasson said she has to give kudos to Breeze Petty, who changed from PF debate to Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate just before the State Tournament.

"Breeze (Petty) had been doing partner debate until very recently," Glasson said. "She changed over to LD at the Worland meet and had to create two new cases, do all of the evidence research and learn the differences between PF and LD in just a matter of days.

"This weekend, her second doing LD, she had a 2-4 record. Its amazing to see her do so well with literally no more than three or four days of preparation."

The Bobcats will finish their season in Casper at the National Qualifiers meet at Casper College.

Glasson said, historically, if the team has a rough State Tournament that they have a good National Qualifiers meet.

Nationals will be held in June in Birmingham, Ala. Competitors will have to finish in the top three at this weekend's tournament to qualify for the National Tournament.