Walking the halls of a school when a speech and debate tournament is happening might result in witnessing a strange sight…legions of students talking to walls. It is a common scene in speech and debate, but not to worry. It’s just competitors getting ready for their next event, pretending to give their speech while warming up their brains and voices. Beau Griffith, a member of the NC Speech and Debate team, explained that it “helps me get into my element.”

Everyone within speech and debate has something they can improve upon if they strive for it after all. Griffith states that her biggest flaw is having trouble with memorization. “I think to improve myself I need to focus on repetition,” Griffith said. Memorizing long texts can be stressful if you’re up in front of a lot of people after all.

On the 28th and 29th of January, NC hosted the Mustang Classics here on the school grounds. The event was described by Griffith as “fun yet stressful” because of how many people there were. She thinks there were around 300 people at one point in attendance, many of them community members who help fill judging slots. The tournament couldn’t happen without them.  

Hosting the Mustang Classic gives NC forensics students a little time off, but they still meet during that time to talk about how to improve themselves and work together as a team. The training and studies from the competitions teach students how to be more confident in themselves while being able to talk in front of a big group of people. Some ways of practice include using flash cards and repeating sentences that may be a bit difficult to pronounce with such words, like “anemone.” 

NCHS speech and debate team recently competed in Jackson Hole, WY. Zoey Pickett received first place in oratory speech, Tyler Cooper received second place for informative speech, and Ocean Robson received first place in oral interpretation. Many other members participated as well for the competition and helped lead the team to victory.