Tears of joy streams down Senior Abby Rice’s face as she is announced first place in all of her events. She looks down into the crowd and sees her teammates and coach shouting and cheering for her.  She stands wondering if this could all be true.

The debate team attended a competition on  in Little Rock. This event was held by Little Rock Hall High School. Junior and senior high schools alike competed in the event.

The debate team competed in two of the three categories: debate and competitive speaking. Among those that competed are Abby Rice, junior Kerim Gales, senior Harlee Marcum, and sophomore Drew Dodson.

Rice took first place in all her events.

“To win any event period is impressive, but all of them? It just isn’t done,” said Rice.

She was stunned when she found out that she had won all of her events.

“I just sort of stood there. It didn’t really register. I just stood there and thought about how cool it would be if it were all true,” Rice said.

In the Springdale school district, debate teams are only formed at the high school level.  However, in other parts of Arkansas they compete at a junior high level as well as high school.

“Cabot high and their junior highs were competing. They start training their kids in middle school,” said debate leader Coach Marshall.

Junior Kerim Gales qualified for state in two events at this competition: debate and extemporaneous speaking. To qualify for state, a competitor must make it to the semi-finals, which at this tournament meant making it into the elimination rounds and going onto the next round after that.  Gales won three debates overall.

The debate team was introduced to a different level of competition at this event.  Last year the team competed at a collegiate level, until the IPDA decided that they only wanted college students in a collegiate circuit. The debate team was forced to start competing at only high school level, so this competition was very different for them.

“This year we’re not doing as much debating as we have. Three rounds this year and we had six to eight last year so we’re becoming flexible in events such as extemporaneous speaking and oratory,” said Gales

Overall, the team did very well at this new level of competition. Debate works not only to win but also on expanding their fields of competition and getting their new debaters experienced by competing in different forensics events along with the theater classes. “My first goal is to win. My second goal is to make sure we get our novice debaters experienced, and then my third goal is to get as many travelling as possible,” said Marshall.