The Speech and Debate team competed in the HDSHC (Hugh Downs School of Human Communication) National Invitational the weekend of January 5 to January 8, 2024 at Arizonia State University in Tempe, AZ.
Hugh Downs School of Human Communication is one of the many educational schools at ASU named after renowned news and entertainment broadcaster Hugh Downs. Over 107 high schools from 18 states participated in this invitational. Nevada sent over 180 students to represent the state, 19 of those students were from Bishop Gorman. The speech and debate team participated in three debate and seven speech events.
A great deal of preparation and hard work by the team go into each speech and debate events, “I wrote about 13 speeches about different topics before I wrote mine,” stated Simar Jolly, 10. “Also cutting down speeches is a challenge. My original speech was 20 minutes long and I had to cut it down to nine minutes.”
Students practice three days a week after school to prepare for speech and debate events. At the tournament itself, the students practiced their material before, during, and after the event to improve their presentation and material.
The speech and debate students participate in events the entire school year to qualify for the state and national championships.