A kickstart from the winter break and a full schedule on their shoulders can describe the state of the Powell High School Speech and Debate team. 

The members who participated at the Northwest College Varsity Tournament Jan. 10-11 now put their feet in the door for the upcoming meets. 

“I was surprised and happy about getting first,” sophomore captain Aiden Chandler said. “There were a lot of other good oratories at Northwest, so there was plenty of competition.”

Two team captains placed in final rounds along with a promising duo: senior captain Duncan Bond, sixth in Program Oral Interpretation (POI), Chandler, first in Oratory; juniors Elsie Spomer and Jaxton Braten, fifth in Duo.

“This paper [the oratory piece] was something that I had always wanted to write because of issues that I saw in our society, and I decided to do it this year because now I have more oratory experience under my belt,” Chandler said. 

In total, 13 Panthers attended the NWC tournament. 

“My topic is social pressure, focusing specifically on teens,” junior captain Anna Atkinson said. “It is a topic that often gets joked about and overlooked. However, it is something most people go through and it is important to talk about how we can deal with it.”

PHS has a busy schedule in upcoming weekends and months with their home tournament on the first weekend of February and other tournaments planned almost every weekend until then. 

“I think we will improve,” Atkinson said. “We had several people do really well, and we are going to work extremely hard on all of our pieces this week so we can hopefully have more people place.” 

Added Chandler: “I’m very confident in our team for the next tournament. We’ve got some great duos and debaters. The other schools better watch out for Powell High School.”