For the second year in a row, Oxford High hool’s Speech and Debate team will be hosting a competition at Oxford High School on Feb. 3-4. While Oxford’s team will not be competing, they’ll be setting up the event and working behind the scenes to make sure the tournament runs smoothly for other schools competing in the event.
Hosting speech and debate competitions re ires lots of time and work. The many intricate tails that go into the setup process need to be perfect in order to make sure the competition runs smoothly.
“We have to recruit judges, feed those judges, ecute a concession stand for the 100+ students m other schools, order trophies, ensure the hool has proper security, janitorial staff, guest fi, and more,” Scotty Jimenez, Speech and Debate
ad coach, said. “Then once the tournament begins, we have to ensure all of the events have room assignments. Afterwards, the classrooms we used
ed to be rearranged to their original set up.” During the event, Oxford’s speech and debate team will be working behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly. Each person has their own job in making sure every part of the process goes as planned whether they are directing dents, keeping the area clean, or helping organize the awards ceremony.
“During our host tournament, the team’s job will be to make things run as smoothly as possible,” Junior Ann Hunter Bigham, a congressional debater, said. “We all have stations throughout the day that we will stay at in order to help competitors from other schools find their way around, or to pro
vide any other assistance. It’s our job to represent the Oxford High School speech and debate team by always being professional and setting a good example.”
The speech and debate team has worked hard this season, and hope that the experience gained this year will further help them next year.
“In preparation for next year’s season, it is so important that we are always striving for growth,” Bigham said. “One of the ways we are doing this is by making sure every available event is filled by an Oxford team member. This makes it so that next year we have the people who are able and ready to compete in a wide array of events. We are on the path to making Oxford as much of a speech team as we are a debate team. This tactic is going to prepare our team for next year’s season and many more to come.”
Just as every other team, speech and debate has seen a large influx in new members. Whether it is students from other grades just joining, or freshmen who are entering high school, the team gaining new “novices,” has led to new leadership roles among other members.
“Our ex-novices are doing amazing,” Junior Lila Rayner, a member of the speech and debate team, said. “It’s a bit difficult to get your feet under you once you hit the varsity brackets, but they’re doing their best. Our captains this year are doing great too. The team’s had a big switch of leadership over the past year, but our captains are taking it really well, especially considering that many of them are juniors and sophomores”
