Tualatin Tournament

Saturday was a day of victory and defeat, a day that our Speechies fought hard in a long, hard battle of wits. The Tualatin tournament is over! Our team went against twenty-five other schools, the most so far this year. There were a total of 166 speakers all competing for bragging rights.
Here are the results, starting with the open division.
Caitlyn McLauchlin took home first place for both her humorous interpretation and her poetry! Her poetry focused on the common man, starting off with a poem that she herself had written. Her humorous interpretation was once again the hilarious “Anton in Show Business” by Jane Martin.
The dynamic Duo of Russel Hay and Kinzi Silburn obtained first place for their Dual interpretation entitled ” I Love You, Your Perfect, Now Change”. Kinzi also took first with her radio on “sexting”.
The duo of the talented Miss Desi Hall and Miss Chelsea Hill took second in the open round. These two are novices who held their own against more experienced competitors. Their selection was” Hairum Scarum” by Christina Hamlett.
Dante Haruna came in third place for Humorous interpretation (HI) with a selection from James in the Giant Peach. Dante’s humorous interpretation was originally a prose. But Dante loved it so much he simply had to change it into a HI.
The Novices worked very rigorous and here are the results.
The domineering Robin Hill walked away with second place for her dramatic interpretation and second place for her radio entitled “technology”. As always Robin presented fierce competition with her DI, which was once again “Prissy Thomas” written by Sarie Fischer Norval.
Chelsea Hill came sliding into third place with her prose called Junie B, First Grader, Toothless Wonder by Barbara Park.
Autumn Gritzbach took home first for her dramatic interpretation. Even though she had the shortest piece she still presented a fierce determination the rounds. Her piece was a cutting from Children of the Flames by Lucette Lagnado and Sheila Dekel. It was quite a macabre piece that captured the judges’ fascination and quite a bit of the competitors as well.
Everyone did great at the Tualatin tournament. Even though some didn’t place they still tried their hardest. And everyone had fun or at least looked like they did.
“One of the other coaches told his team earlier in the week that the awards are secondary to the education received in competitive speaking. I shared this with the team on the bus ride home, adding that making friends, giving encouragement and grace in all circumstances are qualities that set the Bandon High School speech team apart,” Coach Ellen Howard said with a smile.
Way to go speech team! Keep it up! Congratulations to all who placed! And congratulations to those who didn’t place for trying hard!