Tusky Valley students headed to speech tournament
Tusky Valley students Dan Armstrong, left, Zackary Leshon, Isabella Drummer and Kaleah Dorsey will head to Phoenix in June to compete at the National Speech and Debate Association’s national tournament.
Tusky Valley has sent at least one person to the national speech and debate tournament every year but one since forming 10 years ago. This year the team qualified four members to compete nationally in Phoenix, Arizona June 11-16.
Carrie Spina, head coach for the Tusky Valley team, said fewer than 1% of students who participate in speech and debate make it to the national tournament.
This will be the second trip to the national tournament for high school junior Isabella Drummer. Her speech, “Not for Sale,” addresses human trafficking. Drummer said she got the idea for her topic when a poster on the wall in a highway rest stop grabbed her attention.
“You don’t think about human trafficking being real or happening where you live,” Drummer said.
In putting together her speech, Drummer said, “I learned there are groups like women who are more affected by it, but it can really happen to everybody across the board.”
Spina said Drummer, who is the speech club’s president, has performed exceptionally well this year. “She was on fire this year. She placed at every single tournament and is third in Ohio for informative speaking,” Spina said.
Drummer said the biggest thing she has gained from speech is confidence. “I’ve always been extroverted, but it has given me the ability to stand in front of people and speak intelligently. I feel the most confident on Saturday mornings at speech tournaments,” she said.
The three students who will join Drummer in Phoenix all compete in humor, a category in which Tusky Valley has built quite a reputation. This year all three of the advancing speakers created their speeches from movies.
Dan Armstrong’s speech is taken from “Short Circuit,” an ‘80s movie about a robot who gets struck by lightning, comes to life and tries to discern the meaning of life.
For Armstrong, a junior, this is his first trip to nationals. “Speech has definitely helped me with public speaking, but it has also helped me voice my opinions. It gives me a lot more confidence with myself,” he said.
Armstrong placed third in Eastern Ohio in humor and sixth as a finalist in the state tournament.
Zackary Leshon’s speech is cut from a more recent movie, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” This is Leshon’s second trip to the national tournament.
“I just want to break to octa-finals this year,” said Leshon, who will attend Eastern Michigan University in the fall on a speech scholarship and compete as part of its nationally renowned speech and debate team.
Leshon won the Perry Chair, an award given at the Perry High School tournament at the beginning of each year.
“Zachary was a last-chance qualifier in an online tournament,” Spina said. “There were over 100 students competing for 16 spots, and Zachary actually won the final round.”
Kaleah Dorsey’s speech is from the musical, “9 to 5,” based on the movie of the same name. A senior this year, it is Dorsey’s first trip to nationals. “I’m very excited, not so much for the competition part, but for the memories I’ll leave with,” she said.
Spina said Dorsey placed fourth in Eastern Ohio and seventh in the nation at the JW Patterson Tournament of Champions held at the University of Kentucky in April.
Dorsey will join Leshon on the Eastern Michigan University speech and debate team in the fall, also having earned a scholarship based on her strength in speech.
“Our students have big dreams,” Spina said.
Those dreams are nourished by Spina and assistant coaches Rosalie Armstrong and Drake Spina, with assistance from Jared Six, who competed for Fairless High School but received coaching at Tusky Valley.
Competing nationally is expensive
Funds are still needed for the four students to be able to attend the tournament next month. To donate to the speech club, make a check out to Tusky Valley Local Schools, write speech team in the memo line and mail to Tusky Valley, 2637 Tusky Valley Road, Zoarville, OH 44656.