District S&D

P-Russ's recap:

SUBJECT: Gavelin' Eagles going back to Nats! 🦅✈️🌽 + Assistant Coach of the Year!

Greetings, all,

For the third year in a row, your Gavelin' Eagles have QUALIFIED FOR THE NATIONAL SPEECH AND DEBATE TOURNAMENT!!! Accordingly, there is so much incredible news to share from our trip down to Cottonwood Classical Preparatory School this weekend for the New Mexico Speech and Debate District National Qualifying Tournament. We had 20 incredible Gavelin' Eagles in tow, and they all did us proud!

But before we get into national qualifications and student results, we have another particularly outstanding piece of news to share:

• Jennifer Kaskalla is the Assistant Coach of the Year for the New Mexico District! I felt so privileged to be able to present Coach Kaskalla with this award (alongside Natashia Anderson, Kiona Manson, and, of course, Aspyn!). It is no overstatement to say that everything our team has accomplished in these three record-breaking seasons has only been possible thanks to her love, commitment, hard work, and spirit. Coach Kaskalla is now in the running for National Assistant Coach of the Year!!! So well deserved!

Alright, onto our incredible kids! Check these guys out:

• NATASHIA ANDERSON HAS QUALIFIED FOR NATIONALS AND IS THE DISTRICT CHAMPION FOR PROGRAM ORAL INTERPRETATION! This is the fourth time Tash has qualified and the third year in a row she has earned herself an invitation to Nationals! It's also the second year in a row that Tash has won Districts in this event!

• KIONA MANSON HAS QUALIFIED FOR NATIONALS IN CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE (HOUSE), HAVING BEEN A DISTRICT FINALIST AT LAST MONTH'S TOURNAMENT! Kio is also the district's 3rd alternate to Nats and a finalist in Informative Speaking, placing 5th overall! This will be Kio's first trip to Nats!

• ASPYN KASKALLA HAS QUALIFIED FOR NATIONALS IN WORLD SCHOOLS DEBATE! Aspyn is also the district's 3rd alternate and a finalist in Program Oral Interpretation, placing 4th overall, AND she is a district finalist in International Extemporaneous Speaking, placing 6th overall! While this is Aspyn's first time qualifying outright, it will be her second appearance at Nats after she was invited last summer in her capacity as a member of the NSDA's Student Leadership Council!

These three phenomenal competitors have earned themselves a trip to the 2025 National Speech and Debate Tournament, which will be held in Des Moines, Iowa, this June! This is the world's oldest, largest, and arguably most prestigious academic competition. They will be amongst 6000+ top speechies and debaterinos from around the nation and even across the globe. So proud of them!

But that's not all! Please join me also in congratulating the following students for their superb performances:

• Bradley Redhouse, who is the district's 2nd alternate and a finalist in Humorous Interpretation, ranking 3rd overall! 

• Addy Salazar, who is the district's 3rd alternate in Dramatic Interpretation, ranking 4th overall!

• Kaycie Muneta, who is the district's 4th alternate in Dramatic Interpretation, ranking 5th overall!

• Kaleb Jones, who is now the district's 1st alternate in Congressional Debate (House), having been a district finalist at last month's tournament!

• Haylei Redhouse, who is now the district's 2nd alternate in Congressional Debate (House), having been a district finalist at last month's tournament!

There are a few other impressive ranks to celebrate from this weekend, but I cannot see those full results just yet, so I will follow up with an addendum once they become available.

However, there is one final distinction very much worth mentioning. Thanks to her efforts this weekend, Aspyn Kaskalla has reached 1504 merit points with the National Forensic League (the NSDA's honor society), thereby earning her Degree of Premier Distinction! This achievement, commonly referred to as "the Black Seal," represents the highest ranking available to a student in the NFL! Currently, there is only oneother student in all of New Mexico who has achieved this degree (and that student is a 12th-grader who has been competing since 7th grade—twice as long as Aspyn!). Moreover, this is yet another accomplishment that, henceforth, no student of mine had ever reached at any point across my seven years of coaching. Amazing work, Aspyn!

A huge thanks of course to the celebrated Coach Kaskalla for chaperoning and judging, but also to our other inimitable assistant coach, Malyssa Egge, who came down once again to help this weekend! We are enormously grateful to everyone who showed up to judge for us as well, and especially to the one and only Mary Dickey, who had every reason to expect a somewhat earlier return last night, but unfortunately the tournament ran long and it turned out to be another VERY late one. Thanks for getting us there and back safely, Mary, and for being such a great sport about it!

I must confess that one of the reasons I'm happiest we are going back to Nats is that it delays my final goodbye to our team and thus to NPS. It was incredibly bittersweet to know that this weekend was the last time I'd get to spend a weekend like this with our amazing students here in NM. I'm gonna miss it! 😭😭😭

Best,

Russell

Addendum:

Okay — finally got full results! Congrats are also due to the following competitors for their impressive performances:

• Ciera Charley, who placed 5th in Program Oral Interpretation! Honestly, this should've gotten her to finals (usually they break the top 6), but for some reason they only did 4 for POI finals this time. Ciera was robbed!

• Daykiin Draper, who placed 7th in Humorous Interpretation, missing finals by a single spot!

• Ayden Redhouse, who placed 8th in both Informative Speaking AND United States Extemporaneous Speaking, only narrowly missing finals in each event!

• Sierra Nakai, who placed 8th in Humorous Interpretation!

• Haylei Redhouse, who placed 10th in Original Oratory — the tournament's most competitive speech event!