Speech and debate is a long running, very successful group at Savannah High School. It is made up of speech events called Individual Events, where participants either adapt a pre-made work, like a book or play, or create their own, and debate events where they debate a pre-set topic.
Two weekends ago, Feb. 1-2, speech and debate went to Springfield, MO. While there were several members who competed, two really stood out and ended up placing. Senior Luca Freccia competes in Original Oratory. Oratory is an event where they deliver a self-written, 10-minute speech on a topic of their choosing. Another outstanding competitor was senior Paige Sellers. Sellers competes in a similar event with Informative Speaking, which is when the competitors author and deliver a 10-minute speech on a topic of their choosing. At Springfield, Freccia took first in Oratory and Sellers took third in Informative.
“I’m really happy about my placing and makes me hopeful for the rest of the year,” Freccia said.
Then last weekend, Feb. 8-9, speech and debate went to Oak Grove. Once again there were a couple of standouts. Freccia again competed with his Oratory and freshmen Luke Bowie and Ayden Gray competed in Duo Interpretation. Duo is when two competitors team up to deliver a 10-minute performance of a published play or story without the use of looking or touching each other. In the end, Bowie and Gray got third and Freccia got second.
“I’m really excited about how our season is going and how it's looking ahead,” Bowie said.
All three will be looking to perfect their pieces in preparation for State and Nationals Qualifiers in March.