States

P-Russ's recap:

SUBJECT: Remarkable successes at the New Mexico Speech & Debate Championship!

Good morning, all,

Fifteen of our Gavelin' Eagles made the trip down to the University of New Mexico for the premier NM Speech & Debate competition of the year. Major thanks to Ms. Kaskalla (our new assistant coach, btw!), Mr. Wesley, Ms. Wolfe, Ms. Bechdol, and our fearless driver Edith for all their help and support with this tournament. Also, to Malyssa Egge who came out all the way from Bluff to serve as one of our judges -- for the third tournament in a row!

Even though we remain a team of novices going up against schools that have been dominating here at home and in some cases even on the national stage for literal decades, Navajo Prep shook things up once again!

• Natashia Anderson is 3rd in the state for Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate, one of only four students to break to semi-finals! Although this was a novice-only event, it was perhaps the most competitive debate event at the tournament, so Natashia's success is truly an amazing feat. Natashia also placed 5th in Dramatic Interpretation!

• Aspyn Kaskalla is 5th in the state for Informative Speaking, one of only seven students to reach finals! And Info may have been the most competitive Speech event at the tournament. Plus, it was a mixed event, too, so Aspyn may well have been the top novice competitor in Info in the state!

Natashia and Aspyn got super swanky pins and medals for their success. I'm seriously jealous of those pins. We had a few more noteworthy successes too though!

• Bradley Redhouse is 5th in the state for Humorous Interpretation! This was Bradley's first time trying this event and only his second tournament period.

• Tamarron Austin is 6th in the state for Humorous Interpretation! This was his first time trying HI too.

• Hailey Thomas is 7th in the state for HI! Her first time with this event as well!!!

On top of all that, Aspyn Kaskalla was selected by the New Mexico District from a very competitive pool of 9th-11th graders from across the state to represent us as our first ever nominee to the National Speech and Debate Association's Student Leadership Council! Aspyn will now have a shot at representing high school speakers and debaters nationwide if she is selected to sit on this inaugural committee. This is an incredible and rare honor, and we are so very proud that a Gavelin' Eagle was the first to get this nod! See this video for her reaction -- and the reaction of the nearly 200 attendees at the awards ceremony -- which really can't be put into words!

Once again, I'm so amazed by and proud of this team's success, even in (effectively) its very first year. For context, when my previous team was brand new, none of them ranked at States (nor met the level of success these kids have been achieving all season long), and Maine is a smaller, less competitive circuit. And that team has, in the five years since, become one of the top teams in Maine and sent nearly twenty students to Nationals. In other words, I've said it before and I'll say it again -- these kids are GOING PLACES.

Speaking of Nationals, there is one NM tournament left -- a national qualifying district tournament at the end of Spring Break. A lot of our kiddos are gunning to succeed again (and then some!) in that venue, so please congratulate them on their recent success and wish them luck as they prepare for this final competition!

Best,

Mr. Russell