Douglas speech and debate kicks off school year at Fallon tourney

The Douglas High speech and debate team has started the year off on the right note with the first tournament of the year in Fallon.

The last couple years have left the team with many successes including huge wins at state in 2010 and qualifying record amounts of students for the national tournament in 2009 and 2010.

At the start of this year, the team competed at Churchill County High School in Fallon on Sept. 17-18 at the Northern Nevada Forensic League's first tournament of the season.

The highlight of the tournament was Nicole Romaneschi and Vicky Lopez closing out the final round of senior Lincoln-Douglas debate taking first and second.

The team has shown that they will be a force to reckon with in yet another year.

Seventeen schools from all over Northern Nevada competed in five speech events and three debate events.

The following students from Douglas High School received awards for the Sept. 18 debate events: Nicole Romaneschi and Vicky Lopez, first and second place closing out final round, senior Lincoln-Douglas debate; and Evan Stokes, first place, novice Lincoln Douglas debate.

Additionally, the following students from Douglas High School received awards for their speaking events on Sept. 17: Nicole Romaneschi, first place, senior expository speaking; and Megan Frost, second place, senior storytelling.

The freshmen competitors from both middle schools also had a great first showing having this being their first tournament ever. The following are the awards won by Carson Valley and Pau-Wa-Lu middle school students: Savannah Halow and Conor McKay from Carson Valley, third place novice public forum debate; Savannah Halow from Carson Valley, best speaker in novice public forum; Savannah Halow from Carson Valley, second place novice storytelling; Amber Taylor from Carson Valley, fourth place novice storytelling; Jocelyn Contreras and Katelin Teigan from Carson Valley, fourth place novice duo interpretation; and Ryan Philips and Melanie Spaniol from Pau-Wa-Lu, fifth place novice duo interpretation.

The speech and debate team will have its next tournament Oct. 22-23 competing at Carson Valley Middle School.

This will be the first time the middle school has ever hosted a Northern Nevada Forensic tournament. Those interested in volunteering to judge should contact Carson Valley Middle School Coach Brian McNulty at (775) 230-9113.