Speech and Drama Season Gets Underway At Home

The scary Speech/Drama/Debate Meet was held at Glasgow High School on Oct. 29. Though it was a small team participating due to other fall commitments that haven't ended yet, all four competitors gave it their all, taking home third in Drama and Speech Team Sweeps.

Gabe Proctor placed first in Humorous Solo or Humorous Interpretation (HOI), Samantha Combs placed third in Dramatic Solo, Harley Edwards placed sixth in Dramatic Solo and Connor Whitmer placed fourth in Spontaneous Oral Interpretation (SPOI).

During their home meet, the students hosted Speech and Drama teams from Malta, Shepherd, Sidney, Circle, Wolf Point, Scobey, Fairview, Havre, Culbertson, Froid/Medicine Lake and Forsyth. Frazer and Custer were planning to attend however were not able to at the last minute.

"The four students participating at this last meet did exceptionally well for practicing just three weeks," expressed co-head coach Carla Swenson. "Three of them are close to memorizing their pieces, getting their movements down, pausing when needed, etc. These changes will allow them to place even higher as we go through the season. Our fourth competitor [Whitmer] in SPOI will continue to practice reading all sorts of songs and literature aloud. The more exposure to pieces, the better he will become."

According to co-head coach Carla Swenson there are 12 students in Speech and Drama this year, which is up from the seven competitors last year. Students in Speech and Drama, get to pick their events based on their interests. "There are some students who love comedy so they perform HOI, while some have a passion for a topic like suicide, body image or other serious pieces they resonate with. These kids may pick Memorized Public Address (MPA), Dramatic Oral Interpretation (DOI) or Dramatic Solo. We have two teams that will be performing a serious and funny piece. Other kids pick debate, Informational (presentation on an event or topic), Spontaneous Oral Interpretation (SPOI), where everyone in their event is given the same piece to read and then has to perform it," explained Swenson.

The team is under the direction of co-head coaches Swenson and Katerina Heiser as well as volunteer coach Tashenna Wilcox. Though Wilcox is new to Speech and Debate, Swenson and Heiser have years under their belts. They have been involved with the team the past two years at the high school as coaches and also participated in Speech and Drama in high school in Lincoln Douglas Debate and Team Policy Debate.

The coaches appreciate all of the local community support at the home meet, and acknowledged all of the people who helped judge and make the meet possible.

The team's next meet will be at the Billings Lockwood Invitation on Saturday, Nov. 5, which is an AA meet.

Full Results

Speech Sweeps

Class A:

First Place: Sidney

Second Place: Havre

Class B:

First Place: Shepherd

Second Place: Wolf Point

Third Place: Glasgow

Class C

First Place: Fairview

Second Place: Culbertson

Third Place: Circle

Drama Sweeps

Class A

First Place: Sidney

Second Place; Havre

Class B

First Place: Wolf Point

Second Place: Forsyth

Third Place: Glasgow

Class C

First Place: Scobey

Second Place: Plentywood

Third Place: Fairview