WHS Speech and Debate team heads into the home stretch
By Sharon Haught
January 5, 2011
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When a team has a storied history its often tough to live up to high expectations, but the 2010-2011 edition of the Wooster High School Speech and Debate Team is doing just that.
Head coach Ned Lauver has much to be proud of as his very young team heads into the home stretch of the lengthy speech and debate season.
With just three tournaments on the schedule before the team heads to the state tournament qualifying Ohio High School Speech League (OHSSL) Akron District tournament in January and the national tournament qualifying National Forensics League (NFL) northeast Ohio District tournament in February, the team has already racked up an impressive list of accomplishments.
In December, senior Kyla Hemphill was named an NFL Academic All-Star and her father, policy debate coach Dwaine Hemphill, received his first Diamond – an NFL award which recognizes the success of coaches by measuring the success of the students they coach. The team itself was also named to the NFLs prestigious Two Hundred Club, putting the team in the top five percent of all speech and debate teams in the nation.
Already this season the team was named the champion in one tournament and the runner up in three more, including the Massillon Perry tournament where the team beat defending state champion Massillon Jackson. Even during tournaments when the team competed as a split squad and its top varsity debaters headed to out of state tournaments to gain experience against nationally ranked competitors, the team has never placed lower than fourth among the dozens of teams competing at each tournament.
Individual debate team members have performed so impressively that two of Woosters policy debate teams - Maggie Eby/Chelsea Zhu and Kristy Kalikasingh/Austen Yorko - have already qualified to compete in the OHSSA state tournament in March.
So far this season team members on both the speech and debate sides of the team have placed in the top six in their individual categories just shy of 60 times and a number have been named tournament champions in their respective categories.
And while in years past it was the teams high performing seniors who consistently placed, according to Lauver one of the things that has impressed him most this year is that someone different has played the hero every single week, with even its newest team members coming through to keep the team in the hunt for tournament championships.
Part of the challenge has been to bring our freshmen and sophomores along as quickly as possible, said Lauver, adding, were a very young team and we have no choice but to ask our younger members to do the work that upperclassmen are doing on other teams.
We have great seniors, but when youve only got seven or eight on a team of more than 50, the challenge becomes clear. Young and hungry - thats us, said Lauver.
And hungry is what the team will need to be in the coming weeks as it defends the OHSSL District title it has held for decades and attempts to qualify competitors for the NFL national tournament for the 61st time, a record that no other school in the nation, public or private, can match.
As Lauver often tells his team, weve got some work to do.
We are going to be defined by how we compete at the January tournaments, said Lauver.
This team could be a Top 10 team at the state finals if they continue to work. Its up to them as to what kind of a finish we have to the season, said Lauver.
