Cottonwood Classic

P-Russ's recap:

SUBJECT: More firsts for NPS S&D!

Good evening,

Mary is driving us home right now from Albuquerque and the Cottonwood Classic Speech & Debate Tournament -- our first overnight affair. While it was a long couple days, the kids had a blast, and they continue to do us proud. We had 19 students at a tournament with well over 100 total competitors from multiple schools throughout the state, yet once again Navajo Prep was all over the leaderboards:

• The team earned the "Spirit Award" for decorating our table better than any other school's! Major thanks to the front office folk for loaning us their swag and decor! The prize for this award was surprisingly large, pink, and squishy. You'll notice him in some of the attached photos.

• Hailey Thomas took 1st in Storytelling! Her first time with that event!

• Bradley Redhouse took 2nd in Storytelling! At his first ever tournament! He also got 4th in Interpretation of Literature!

• Niejah Davis took 3rd in US Extemporaneous Speech! Her first time with that event!

• Aspyn Kaskalla took 5th in Informative Speaking! While this ranking is lower than the other three, Aspyn's event was far more crowded, as evidenced by the fact that it was one of only two Speech events to have a final round. That Aspyn made it to this final round and got fifth is one of the most tremendous achievements of this or any other event we've been to!

• Josiah Dineyazhe took 5th in US Extemporaneous Speech! His first time in that event!

• Haylei Redhouse and Marcus Nahalea got 7th in Public Forum Debate! This one also is much more impressive than it looks as PF is one of the toughest and most intimidating events in the whole Speech & Debate world, and they were trying it for the first time (it was Marcus's first S&D experience period!).

• Addyson Salazar got 8th in Informative Speaking! It was her first tournament, too!

• Talen Becenti got 9th in Informative Speaking!

• Rodericka Hale-Toledo got 10th in Informative Speaking! Her first time with that event.

Notably, these events were all mixed in terms of experience level, so these performances were won against some students who have been doing Speech & Debate for as many as three years prior!

Special thanks to Jen, who followed us down and organized all of our food and lodging. And also to Erik, who judged Debate, and to Sherrick, who now has the honor of being the first NPS Board Member to judge one of our competitions! And another thank you to Mary, who dealt oh-so-gracefully with a pretty major gaffe of mine yesterday!.

Please join me in shouting out each and every one of these hometown heroes when you see them in the halls this week.

Best,

John