Spoofhounds win at first speech tourney
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Shown are first-year competitors Skiler Williams and Justus Voss on the Maryville High School Speech and Debate Team. At their first competition, Voss and Williams took third and fourth in Student Congress out of 80 competitors, and Voss took the championship in Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
After graduating six seniors, Maryville High School’s speech and debate team followed a common Missouri mantra: Next man up.
Last weekend, the team traveled to the first tournament of the season co-hosted by Blue Springs and Blue Springs South High Schools. Novices competed at Blue Springs, while Blue Springs South hosted varsity competitors.
Junior Justus Voss led the way in the novice competition with a first-place finish out of 92 entries in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, a one-on-one value-based debate style. With a 7-0 overall record, Voss said he even shocked himself with the result.
“I was definitely in awe,” Voss said. “I didn’t think I had it in me to make it that far, let alone win the whole thing.
“I definitely couldn’t have made it to that point without the help of (head coach) Mrs. (Trudy) Kinman, Makaylah Jones and Skiler Williams, who had debated the person I faced in the final and shared her notes with me. Their help and insight helped me a lot.”
Voss also placed third in Student Congress out of 80 competitors. He said his best speech of the day was in the final round, known as the Super Session, in which he gave a rather conflicted speech.
“I gave a great speech against a bill which would criminalize LGBTQ discrimination which I wrote 30 minutes before the round started,” Voss said. “I didn’t necessarily agree with the speech I gave, but I was happy with how it was received by the judges.”
His fellow novice debater, junior Skiler Williams, placed fourth in Student Congress. She said she joined the team because she was interested in the actual Congress, and she figured Student Congress would be fun to do.
“I wasn’t even sure I’d like it that much, but after I made it to the Super Session and placed fourth, I was really excited to keep doing it,” Williams said. “I noticed in the earlier rounds that there wasn’t a lot of conversation or debate going on, so I just kept speaking, and it worked to my advantage.”
Williams also just missed qualifying for elimination rounds in novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate with a 3-1 record through preliminary rounds.
In the varsity competition at Blue Springs South, junior Emma Webb-Kirkpatrick followed up a season of success in interpretation (acting) events with a second-place finish out of 40 competitors in Oratory. With a speech on coming to terms — and developing a relationship — with the feeling of fear, she said she was excited about the way she finished.
“I’ve wanted to do Oratory since my freshman year,” Webb-Kirkpatrick said. “It feels great that I’m doing this event, and to place so well in my first try is an awesome feeling. This is a great way to start the season.”
Meanwhile, junior Jack Ratliff placed sixth in Oratory. The Cabot, Arkansas-native moved to Maryville with his family over the summer, and he said he didn’t notice much difference in the competition.
“You have to sign in on the board and create a chart for the other competitors,” Ratliff said. “Other than that, the level of competition is just as much as it was in Arkansas.
“My speech this year is on rock and roll, specifically the misconceptions surrounding it. So many people think that it’s all negative, so my speech is centered around telling people that rock and roll is a lot more positive than negative.”
In debate, seniors Makaylah Jones and Delanie Vinzant qualified to the Super Session of Student Congress. While Jones was coming fresh off of qualifying for the National Tournament, Vinzant was doing the event for the second time ever.
“My first time was at districts last year,” Vinzant said. “It was good to have it as a backup event for the tournament since I don’t have an Oratory or Informative speech ready yet.”
“It was good to see that the competition is strong so early in the season,” said Jones, who also qualified for the quarterfinal round in the Championship division of Lincoln-Douglas Debate, compiling a 4-1 total record. “Having tough competition keeps tournaments from getting boring. I’m really just excited to be competing again.”
Vinzant also placed third in junior varsity Public Forum Debate with junior Cayren Barnett, going 4-0 in a division without elimination rounds. Barnett wanted to try the format of debate, and Vinzant was willing to oblige.
“My usual partner, Lydia Mitchell, is the drum major for the marching band, so she still had some commitments to the band and can’t compete yet,” Vinzant said. “When Cayren said she wanted to try the event out, I was happy to help.”
“I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the event, my brother Christian did it when he was a junior,” Barnett said. “We obviously did pretty well, which is great.”
Meanwhile, junior Hannah Hawthorne left Public Forum behind as her former partner is set to move soon. Instead, Hawthorne transitioned to junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and with a 4-0 record, placed third.
“I didn’t want to try and find another partner for Public Forum, so I just decided to make the transition,” Hawthorne said. “The two events are really similar, and with a lot of help from Mrs. Kinman and Makaylah, the transition was really easy.”
For her part, Kinman said she was extremely proud of her competitors.
“This was our first trip out of the year, and we stepped up,” Kinman said. “It was great to see so much success for both our novices and our varsity competitors.”
The Spoofhounds return to Kansas City this weekend. Oak Park High School will host novice competition, while varsity competitors will speak at Park Hill High School.