PHS forensics competes at Whitefish
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News from Polson High School speech and debate
WHITEFISH — Fifteen teams, including Polson High School’s speech and debate team, competed at the Whitefish Invitational Speech and Drama meet on Saturday, Nov. 22.
Casting a pall over the meet was the death of Shelley Fisher, the previous head speech coach for Libby High School. Fisher lost her battle with cancer earlier in the week, and the Libby team did not compete in Whitefish.
“All of the coaches are just heartbroken over the loss of Shelley,” Whitefish head coach Sara Mueller said. “She did so much for Libby High School. She was not only a great teacher and coach, but she was a fantastic person as well. Speech and drama in western Montana just lost a legend.”
PHS brought only 11 competitors to the Whitefish meet due to illness and other commitments, said Jon Petersen, PHS head speech coach.
“Haley Kendley, as usual, did a great job in Memorized Public Address. She is also going to compete in Expository Speaking at our next meet, and I anticipate that she’ll excel in that event as well,” Petersen said. “As a team, it wasn’t our best performance of the season. We ran into some stiff competition, and we had several kids just miss out on making it to finals, but I think we are continuing to improve. I was particularly pleased with the debaters—we had two new kids compete this weekend, and they really did a great job. Kenyon Cairns finished with a 2-2 record, which is outstanding for a first-time competitor at such a large meet.”
PHS finalists were:
8th Place, Policy Debate: Annabelle Smith and Shannon McGinnis
3rd Place, Memorized Public Address: Haley Kendley
Sweeps (team) Results:
AA Speech: 1st - Flathead; 2nd - Glacier Navy; 3rd - Glacier Green
A Speech: 1st - Columbia Falls; 2nd - Hamilton; 3rd - Stevensville
B Speech: 1st - Loyola; 2nd - Ronan
A Drama: 1st - Corvallis; 2nd - Stevensville; 3rd - Frenchtown
B Drama: 1st - Lincoln County
Polson Speech and Debate team has five meets remaining in the season. Polson will compete again on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 12 and 13 in Kalispell.
