States

P-Russ's recap:

SUBJECT: STATE CHAMP ALERT! 🚨🦅👩🏽‍⚖️ Gavelin' Eagles make history at States!

Good afternoon, all,

As you may have seen on NPS social media already, the Gavelin' Eagles have once again outdone themselves! Last night, Natashia Anderson beat out over a dozen top competitors from around New Mexico to be named the NMAA State Champion in Program Oral Interpretation!!! As legendary Albuquerque Academy coach Elise Matton put it, Tash has established a new legacy for our team, bringing home the first state championship in the entire history of Navajo Prep Speech and Debate! 🥳🥳🥳

Tash performed her program four times before six different judges over the course of the two-day tournament, and each judge ranked her first every single time! No one else in the event even came close to this record. Watching Tash create, improve, and practice this program over the course of the season has been truly inspiring. Those of you fortunate enough to have seen her perform it know what I mean. We are so proud of her!

Unsurprisingly, States was the most competitive event of the entire season so far, and yet Tash's achievement isn't the only cause for celebration! Please join me also in congratulating:

• The entire team for earning Navajo Prep the official distinction of being named a Speech School of Honor! We were one of just two teams to receive this honor, and we got a fancy little plaque!

• The team of Addyson Salazar and Tamarron Austin for making it to finals in Duo Interpretation! They were ranked 6th in the state!

• Bradley Redhouse, who tied for 7th in the state in the unusually competitive event of Humorous Interpretation! Bradley was the narrowest of margins away from breaking to finals as well! 

• Avery Himmelreich, who ranked 10th in the state in Program Oral Interpretation and was that event's second highest-performing novice!

• Finally, Marcus Nahalea, who was officially recognized as 4th in the state for House Congressional Debate based on his national-qualifying performance from two weeks ago. And an additional big congrats to him and to fellow Gavelin' Eagle Haylei Redhouse for their success at Southwest JSHS, and to Ms. Flores for coaching them to that victory. Sorry we stole Aspyn, Yolanda!

We had 17 students competing in total, and all of them did us proud! It is so stunning and heartwarming to see how this team has grown in just two seasons. With all our successes, it's easy to forget how young we are (our most experienced competitors are less than half as experienced as their most experienced opponents, and we are up against teams that have been around for literal decades). I can't imagine how many more achievements await our Gavelin' Eagles as the playing field continues to level out.

Major, major thanks as usual to all the judges from our community who came out to make competition possible for us. In particular, I want to shout out Delvecchio "Kyle" Wilson, NPS Class of 2015, who came and judged on Saturday. Kyle was the team's MVP back in its earlier iteration when Ms. Henry coached it. His energy was so infectious yesterday, and it was delightful to watch him light up as he talked about the role s-and-d has played and continues to play in his life, and as he learned about how far his team has come all these years later.

Also, big thanks to my assistant coaches, Malyssa Egge and Ms. Kaskalla, both of whom came out to be part of this tournament.

Thanks also to Louise Atene for once again getting us there and back safely, and with a smile on her face – despite how late things went on Saturday (we didn't get home until midnight!).

Finally, a huge shoutout to Ms. Crisp and Tashina Anderson (Tash's mom) for coordinating a magnificent sendoff for the team, and to the other parents who helped out with all that went into that, and to all the staff and students who came out to cheer us on as we headed south Friday morning!

We have one more NM tournament to go: Districts in late March. This will be the last significant opportunity for kids to qualify for Nats! We'll see if anyone will be accompanying Marcus and me!

Best,

Russell