Tournament Goes Well for Speech and Debate Team Thursday, December 18, 2008 By Zalak Patel - Advertising The Cameron High School Speech and Debate Team had their first tournament on Friday November 21 and Saturday November 22 at Savannah High School. Other schools in attendance included Blue Springs High School, Rock Port High School, Excelsior Springs High School, Albany High School, Maryville High School, St.Joseph Central High School, and LeBlond High School.    The three debate rounds were held on Friday and the individual events were on Saturday.   For the debate rounds, Freshman Zane Clark and Senior Megan Garrett worked together. For the Individual Events, Sophomore Trulea Fletcher competed in original oratory, Freshmen Kayla Turner and Emily Simpson competed in poetry reading, and Senior Tim Miller competed in extemporaneous speaking.   One of the interesting things about this year's team was that no one had much experience before the tournament.   "None of these competitors had any prior experience. Megan Garrett participated in Mock Trial competition last year, but had not previously competed in debate," explained Speech and Debate Coach Mr.Calvert. Mr.Calvert not only is the coach, but also judged the first round of student congress. Some of his other tasks included keeping the competitors focused on their performance, and ensuring the competitors' scores were properly entered and tabulated.   Everyone on the team did well for their first tournament.   Megan and Zane took second place. Their topic was "The United States should significantly increase its expenditures on alternative energy sources". Megan and Zane debated for and against the topic.   "[Working with Megan] was nice because she had experience", said Zane. He later on went to say he wasn't too nervous before the debate and after it was over he felt like he actually knew what he was doing.   Trulea placed fourth, fifth, and sixth in her original oratory entitled "The Heart of a Writer," which was about the benefits of creative writing. Wondering what an original oratory is? "It's a piece written by a person, kind of like a persuasive speech on moral beliefs", explained Trulea.   Kayla placed fifth, first, and third in her poetry reading. Emily placed third, fifth, and third in hers.   Last, but not least, Tim Miller placed in the top 6 for extemporaneous speaking and then went on to the finals where he placed sixth. During the extemporaneous round, he was given a choice of three topics and he chose one of the topics to write a speech about in thirty minutes. In the finals his topic was universal healthcare.   "It felt good because I beat the other competitors and places", said Tim. Tim also said there were a lot of schools and he met a lot of new people.   The next tournament will be on December 19 and 20 at St.Joseph Central. Good luck to everyone competing. Show them CHS has a lot to say and knows how to say it!

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