The Scorpion Spectacular was held here at Mountain Ridge High School for the second year in a row this past Friday. A total of 35 schools attended. Overall, the debate went very well.  

All of the students were very competitive and some ran late, but the awards were still able to be held on time. Very few of the MRHS students compete at tournaments the school runs. Instead, they helped out with prep, made sure the tournament ran smoothly, and provided directions and maps to visiting schools. 

Every type of debate has a different topic and there are six different debate events. There are no set topics for speech events since they are more about the type of speaking. The topics are all different and are determined by the person competing. 

The Speech and Debate team competes about eight times a year. In order to prepare for the debate they participate in, the debaters have to do a great deal of research and prepare their cases, write opening speeches, practice taking notes on other people’s debates to be able to respond, and practice writing impromptu speeches that respond to their competitor’s case. 

All of the members that participated deserve to be highlighted for their skills. 

“Each person is unique in these, but since we had very few people competing in this tournament it is really hard to tell,” said Mrs. Jewett when asked if there were any debaters in particular she felt deserved a highlight from this weekend. 

As for what’s next for the team, there are still several tournaments this year. There is the state tournament, National Qualifiers, and the National Speech and Debate tournament will be held in Phoenix this year as well.