BK Yappers Go to Nats

Two weekends ago, Bishop Kelly’s Speech and Debate team fought hard at this year’s Gem of the Mountain National Qualifier Tournament. Specifically bringing home five seats for the national tournament, the Congressional Debate Sweepstake Award, and the Leading Chapter Award. Nat Quals is a unique tournament that takes place over three whole days, and I am slightly ashamed to admit that I attended all three days. Over the three days, I had to keep myself entertained, so let me take you on the journey of the day in the life of a Speech and Debate Competitor!
The first day, Thursday, was pretty tame; the tournament was only scheduled to last around five hours, giving many competitors hope that they would be home at a reasonable time. However, if you need to know one thing about speech and debate tournaments, it’s that they NEVER run on time. Friday was reserved for two rounds of Congressional Debate, a format where students debate on bills. However, despite the tournament’s quick schedule, a certain Junior from Bishop Kelly High School of the name Charlie Kyle Tobler may or may not have caused the tournament to run an hour late. Congressional Debate is unique in the sense that students get to decide when the round ends, so if a student were to convince others to keep debating, then the round can simply continue indefinitely. And that is exactly what Charlie did, causing the tournament to run a whole hour behind. I got home at 11:45 PM; life was awful. Despite this, Seniors Lucy Glynn and Tucker Gratton placed second and first in Congress, respectively.
The following day was reserved for speech, and, thankfully, ran somewhat on time with minimal issues. It was a monumental day for Sophomore Mullai Subramaniyan, who took home the champion title in Informative Speaking, as well as Juniors Jack Kartel and Margaret Phillips. Phillips smoothly claimed the champion title in Original Oratory, and Kartel qualified for the national tournament in U.S. Extemporaneous Speaking. Additionally, senior Lucy Glynn was a finalist in Original Oratory.
Finally, we arrive to Saturday: the day for all debate events outside of Congress. The debate day for other events went fairly smoothly. The team gave many excellent performances, including Subramaniyan and her debate partner Logan Jungert, who placed third in the Public Forum format. Unfortunately, Gratton went 0 and 4 in Big Questions Debate. (In deep reflection, Gratton acknowledges that he lost every single round he went into. He claims that he doesn’t know what happened. Is he washed up? Just has bad luck? Maybe both??) However, the thing that stuck with me from that day was the adventures of the debate crew going to a gas station. With Logan Jungert at the helm of the caravan, we traveled valiantly to a gas station where I purchased a soda in a glass bottle; little did I know this would be the most detrimental decision I have made in my speech and debate career (and I’ve done some problematic things). Essentially, we had no tool to open this bottle, and the bottle wasn’t a twist open either, so Logan decided to do combat with the bottle and ended up slashing his hand open. Blood was spilled on that soda. Luckily though, some friends from the Nampa school district came to our aid, and with the promise of a multi-tool, took the soda and pried it open, but they spilled half of it over the floor, and it just felt like such a waste of time. That soda still lives rent-free in my mind.
There were several great performances outside of those who qualified; the national qualifier tournament is one of the hardest tournaments of the year in terms of placing, typically only taking one student per fifteen entries. The speech and debate captains express that they are incredibly proud of every single individual who competed at the tournament. Everyone tried their hardest, and the team is well-prepared for the district debate tournament, which takes place this weekend. Overall, the tournament was somewhat fun. I am proud of everybody, and I’m looking forward to an even stronger performance at state.