The Cascade Speech and Debate club has been around for over twenty years but still remains unknown to a majority of the student population. The club is a highly academic one, with members writing, memorizing, and blocking performance pieces in preparation for tournaments. There’s also the ability to advance onto the State Tournament, then Nationals. The smaller tournaments take place on Saturdays at a different school each time. They are hosted by whichever Speech and Debate team volunteers in the state of Washington.
In a Speech and Debate tournament, there are three patterns: A, B, and C. In each of these patterns are different events that can be entered. For example in A pattern there’s Dual Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, and Informative. B pattern has Humorous Interpretation, Original Oratory, and Tall Tales. As seen, both A and B have speech events only. C pattern is the debate round with three events: Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglass, and Congress. There are many more events in A/B patterns, but these are the most popular among the CHS team.
“The best part about Speech and Debate is how many different events there are. There’s something here for everyone, plus you can connect with people in your events and make new friends with shared interests.
It’s really an amazing club,” said Coal Fiano (11).
The team is a small, but mighty one with six members. The President is Coal Fiano (11), Vice President is Reese Mathers (12), Secretary is Mia Schons (11), and the Treasurer is Rhonan Allen (12). The other two members are Georgia Holm (10) and Ashton Weston (11). The CHS Speech and Debate coach is Nichol Graham-Mathers, who filled the empty position after Mr. Dwayne Allen, the previous coach, retired from the role. Mr. Allen had been the coach for years after Mandi Wickline (a previous CHS employee) accepted another job and left the Cascade School District.
CHS’s Speech and Debate team has been through their fair share of hardships. Last year Alumni Breanna Loomis, the president of the team for four years, graduated. This shook up the organization of power within the team. They also suffered their share of money troubles, starting this year with $505 in debt. Luckily, with the help of Mrs. Mathers and local restaurants, the team earned that money and jumped back into the game. On October 16th, Yodelin Broth Co. held a benefit dinner to support. They earned $750 for the team. Local restaurant South also held a benefit dinner on December 12th, where the team will get 20% of the funds from that night. The community has worked hard to keep Speech and Debate alive at Cascade.
Thanks to the funds, Speech and Debate can now afford the van fees to travel to tournaments. Their tournaments are all-day events starting at 8:00AM and finishing around 8:00PM, sometimes not getting home until 2:00AM the next day. The structure of the tournaments is very simple: A Pattern, B Pattern, C Pattern. If a student happens to be double entered, for example Schons (11) has two events in A pattern, they need to do a bit of rushing to reach their events. There is no limit to the number of events a student can enter in, but most opt for two. Every person has their favorite events, but it's often hard to choose which ones to compete in. With the wide range of choices, some such as Weston opted for one event, in his case Original Oratory, while others such as Allen are entered in three.
Now, CHS has only one current debate team, the pair of Schons and Fiano. In the past, Schons debated alongside Loomis who mentored her, but now Schons is stepping into the instructing role.
“Making the shift from being taught how to do debate to teaching someone else how to debate is the most challenging part, because now someone relies on me to know stuff about this event,” Schons said.
Most members of the team have stuck with it throughout their high school career, but as with any club, it can be hard to try something new.
Senior Mathers proffered her view on joining Speech and Debate: “I joined Speech and Debate Freshman year because a couple of my friends convinced me to. I had a lot of fun at practices and online tournaments and kept with it until we were able to go to in-person tournaments Sophomore year. The longer I did it, the more fun I had and the more confident I felt. I think joining Speech and Debate was incredibly worth it, because it’s developed my speaking skills a lot. I get to talk about subjects I’m passionate on and be given feedback to improve my speeches.”
Speech and Debate is a great club for anyone that loves writing, performing, or making up stories on the sport. Theres something here for everyone and it’s good practice with public speaking. If you have questions about joining CHS Speech and Debate, email coal.fiano@gmail.com
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