Recently, the OHS Choir and Debate teams have become classified as sports teams for their upcoming seasons this year. The changes aren’t drastic, but there are changes that were made to the two new teams.

“What has changed is the stuff we have to do,” junior Debate member Jackson Scruggs said. “Like other sports teams with communicated through Dragonfly, and we also have to complete stuff like anti-hazing and anti-bullying stuff.”

The two new teams had to fill out the same forms as the other sports teams in the school. The program ‘Dragonfly’ made sure the team was not bullying and hazing other team members.

“We just had to take a few courses on sportsmanship and bullying plus we get a discount on athletic passes,” junior Choir member Jack Green said. 

The teams’ tournaments, competitions, and classes have not changed much at all, as they still have the same goals for the season, according to Scruggs.

“Our one big goal is to win state,” Scruggs said.  “Last year, we finished really good. Got some qualifiers to nationals, but didn’t win state at Madison central. “

As for the choir team, they don’t compete as regularly as debate, but they do learn new songs to sing and perfect and get better as a group.

“Competition wise we don’t compete that often but at the beginning of last year we did well and at a later competition got all 1’s [the highest score you can get],”  Green said. “Plus, we ended up with the number one bass in the state and number one soprano, so we did well competition-wise. Piece-wise we were able to transition from simple songs at the beginning of the year to a 30 minute long latin piece which we performed very well.”

Both teams believe they can do good this season, while having fun and getting better as a team. 

“Honestly I couldn’t say this early, but I do think we will be good this year.” Scruggs said.

The mindset for the two teams remains the same while these changes don’t do any drastic measures.

“It’s not very different, I wouldn’t call us a sports team, we are a team, just not one for sports,” Green said. “I just think it’s a category they had to throw us in. Overall there is really no difference for last year.”