Speech members host tourney

Hot Springs County High School was filled to the rafters on Saturday as the Hot Springs County High School Speech and Debate team held their Bobcat Invitational Speech Meet alongside the Thermopolis Middle School’s wrestling tournament.

“Things went very smoothly,” speech coach Cindy Glasson said. “It was like ‘singlets and suits day’ with the speech kids all dressed up and middle school wrestlers all in basically the same space.”

According to Glasson, there were over 200 students from 12 Wyoming schools attending this year’s Bobcat Invitational, a number that had them scrambling for enough rooms to hold rounds in.

“Our kids don’t actually participate in their own tournament,” she said. “Instead, they run the whole thing so they can get a feel for what it takes for these other schools to put on a tournament. It gives them a sense of compassion when things start running late and they’re tired.”

For Glasson, the tournament gives her a good idea of who their competition is going to be for the season in 3A.

“I don’t have a chance to go see the other kids performances,” she said, “but being in the tab room I can see where the scores are and which teams are going to be tough to beat. This season, it looks like Torrington and Newcastle are going to give us a run for our money in sweepstakes.”

The Bobcats will now settle in with their practice schedule, even holding practices during a portion of Christmas break, in order to be ready for their first tournament at Kelly Walsh in Casper on Jan. 12-13.

“These next four months our feet aren’t even going to touch the ground,” Glasson laughed. “We’ll be on the road three out of four weekends in January, half of February and then three out of four weekends in March.

“I don’t like to look too far down the road, but these kids have some pieces that I truly think could not only be state winners, but could push them on to Nationals. Now that they’ve had a season under their belts, they understand what the competition is and they are ready to go out there and make their mark.”