High hopes: Speech and debate team looking to win 16th straight state A title

The Columbia Falls speech and debate team will look to secure a 16th straight class A title this year. But the competition is tougher than ever, noted some of the seniors on the team and coronavirus concerns have made it even harder for speakers and debaters to get their point across.

Seniors Taylor Stephens, Calie Jo Johnson and Trey Finley said they’ve all had to make adjustments to their performances this year, due to coronavirus concerns.

In years past, the team would all load up onto a bus and visit the hosting school, giving performance after performance in front of in-person judges. The bus rides were part of the fun and interacting with teammates and judges was a key part of their success.

This year they just come to the high school, log into a computer and either give their speech or debate their opponents via videoconference.

Sometimes the connection fails. Other times the audio falters.

“I’ve been ‘kicked off’ many times,” senior Taylor Stephens said. Stephens competes in informative speaking and memorized public address.

Finley, a debater, said his delivery is about the same as it would be in person, but the team members have been learning to use camera angles and facial expressions, as they don’t really see the judges.

Johnson said it just isn’t the same, however. There’s no substitute for in person interaction. She said she was quarantined for one meet and had to debate from home.

“There was no one around to keep the energy up,” she said.

But then again, the rest of the teams are in the same boat and all of the seniors agreed it was better than not having a season at all.

“We all try to make the best of it,” Stephens said.

This year they’ve been trading places at meets with other schools. Columbia Falls has won some, Whitefish won the divisional tourney and in the last meet of the regular season, Frenchtown won.

Speech and debate has proven worthwhile throughout their high school careers, they noted. Johnson is looking toward the Naval Academy after high school, Finley has been accepted to Brown University and Johnson said she’s looking to study political science and journalism at Willamette University in Oregon.