TV students qualify for national competition
Brooklyn Fockler, left, and Brianna Swinford of Tusky Valley earned spots at the National Speech & Debate Tournament in Albuquerque this summer.
Tusky Valley High School has a number of students who will head to the National Speech & Debate Tournament this June in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The students qualified to compete nationally at the Eastern Ohio District competition on Feb. 14 and 15 at GlenOak High School in Canton.
Brooklyn Fockler took first place in the Informative category with a speech she wrote called “To Bee or Not to Bee.” The speech examines the possible coming extinction of honey bees and how such an event would affect life on Earth.
Now in her senior year and her fourth year on the speech team, Fockler said she was inspired to write the speech when she came across social-media posts regarding the Save the Bees movement and feeling like no one was really talking about it. “I decided I would talk about it,” she said.
Fockler is the daughter of Keith Fockler of Bolivar and Stephanie Heck of Mineral City.
Also heading to Albuquerque is Brianna Swinford, who placed first in Humorous Interpretation. Swinford’s speech is based on excerpts from the musical comedy, “Nunsense.”
Swinford is the Canton District champion in Humor in just her second year on the speech team and her first year in the Humor category. She competed last year in Drama but switched to Humor so she could learn from Drake Spina, the son of coach Carrie Spina who went to the national competition four years in a row in Humorous Interpretation.
Swinford is the daughter of Mike and Heidi Swinford of Dover.
Two additional students from Tusky Valley qualified as alternates to the national competition. Ellie Dorsey qualified as first alternate in Informative, and Justin Pirolozzi qualified as second alternate in Humorous Interpretation.
Another qualifier coached by Carrie Spina is Jared Six, a Fairless High School senior. Six is the second alternate in Dramatic Interpretation. Fairless does not have a speech team, so Six is coached by Spina and travels to the tournaments with the Tusky Valley team.
The Tusky Valley team also came in fourth in what is called “Sweepstakes,” where a team’s total points are tallied based on the scores each team member receives during the competition.
“I never dreamed we would place fourth in sweeps, having such a small team,” Carrie Spina said.
Tusky Valley’s team of 17 students routinely competes against schools with as many as 50-70 students on their teams.
“It goes to show the power is not in numbers but in the quality of the performance each student brings,” Carrie Spina said.
Something funny going on
Swinford is the third student from Tusky Valley to qualify for the national tournament in Humor. In addition to Drake Spina, Aric Bird, now a student at Eastern Michigan University, competed at the national tournament in 2016 and 2017.
“Humor is one of my favorite categories to coach because we get to be super creative,” Carrie Spina said. “I won’t give away our secrets to success, but it has a lot to do with casting the right kids in the right categories, and I can spot a potential Humor a mile away. But once the students are cast, they work extremely hard to succeed.”
As for the rest of the team, Spina said she is proud of every one of the students and thrilled to have had a student qualify for nationals this year in something other than Humor, referring to Fockler’s win in Informative.
The National Speech & Debate Tournament is the largest academic competition in the world, according to the National Speech & Debate Association website. It will take place June 14-19 in Albuquerque. Created in 1925, the National Speech & Debate Association recognizes and empowers high school and middle students through competitive speech and debate activities.