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900 students participate in speech-league tournament
CANFIELD
Canfield High School wasn’t in session Saturday afternoon, but the school on Cardinal Drive was packed with students.
The 88th annual Ohio High School Speech League State Tournament began Friday and finished Saturday at Boardman and Canfield high schools. Team members competed in 13 categories — nine for speech and four for debate.
“There’s nowhere I’d rather be at on a Saturday,” said Sarah Hunter, 18, a senior at Columbiana High School.
Hunter competed in the quarter-finals for the prose and poetry category. She has competed all four years of high school after an English teacher got her involved.
“I was like, ‘What’s speech?’” she said. “I was really shy [in my first year].”
She gained more confidence at the end of her sophomore year when she wanted to improve and do better.
“This season was a great season,” Hunter said.
About 900 students from across the state participated, and some saw this competition as connected to their career paths. Dan Driscoll, 16, a junior at Cardinal Mooney High School, competed in the Lincoln-Douglas category for debate. He said debates have always been an interest of his, and he plans to study philosophy and law when he attends college. Driscoll said the competition shapes students’ character.
“It really teaches you communication skills,” he said.
Students at the competition didn’t just talk the part but looked the part as well in professional wear.
Jeremy Hamilton, a math teacher at Canfield High School and a state committee member for the tournament, said it’s a creative outlet for students to compete.
“It’s really intense,” he said.
Hamilton, who graduated from Canfield High School in 2001, became the assistant coach for the high school’s speech team in 2005, and then head coach the following year. Over that time period, he’s seen students become more confident and poised with every year they compete.
“That’s probably the most enjoyable part — to see the evolution,” he said.
In the speech division of the competition, students participated in four preliminary rounds over Friday night and Saturday morning. The top 24 teams selected are whittled to 12, then six before the winners are announced.
On the debate side, the competition is set up like a “March Madness Bracket” for 32 students, Hamilton said.
Further, students from various categories make up teams and gain points the further they go, he said.
Altogether, there will be a total of 13 state champions along with the top 10 teams, announced Saturday night.
“It’s an experience that kids never forget,” he said.