By Carla Seravalli
Last Friday and Saturday, the Spartan speech team came in clutch and qualified a substantial amount of the team to represent Nebraska at the National Speech and Debate Tournament this summer. The tournament took place at Millard West, and, of the possible sixteen spots allotted to their district, East took ten, certifying eleven students to compete in Salt Lake City, Utah in June.
The spots are determined by a series of elimination rounds, and many novice competitors held their ground and remained serious contenders for most of the tournament, including Freshman Kylie Miller, who was the first alternate speaker in Dramatic Interpretation. Under the leadership of their new coach, Nick Herink, East defeated the rest of the schools in their districts and took home the team sweepstakes award; a tremendous feat for a group of speakers comprised mostly of underclassmen.
Indeed, despite a multitude of forces working against them, the notorious Spartan speech team has proven themselves as a force to be reckoned with just in time for their district competition on March 12th.