Speech and Debate team heads to national competition

“I had a deep fear of public speaking before joining Speech and Debate,” explains junior Avery Z. “And joining this team was a way to counteract that fear and develop my confidence.”

Since her freshman year, Avery has been on Overlake’s Speech and Debate team competing in both categories. Last year she went to the national competition with Overlake and placed third in the category of philosophical debate. This year she heads back to Des Moines, Iowa with her fellow teammates to compete in the same category. “The topic this year is: is creativity a more powerful force than intelligence?”

Avery, along with 11 other Owls, including Laya R. (’26) will be competing in Iowa, beginning June 15th. Laya, who has been on the team for two years will be competing in one of the speech categories called oratory, which is a ten-minute prepared speech. “You persuade the audience for a certain thing. This year I am talking about beauty standards,” says Laya.

To qualify for Nationals, students attend area qualifiers. “The top two of each event goes to Nationals,” explains Laya. “Overlake did awesome. We have 12 students going. It’s really impressive.”

Under the coaching of Robin Monteith and Forrest Williams, the students meet twice a week in the 5th/6th grade building, breaking into small groups to rehearse and get feedback. There’s also research happening, making sure the students have the best information and arguments to use. Sophomore, Naveen V., who’s in his first year on the team, helps with the research. “It’s just fun. You research the topic. You learn about it.” Naveen goes on to explain, “it’s a lot more than just making arguments. There’s a big difference between competitive debate and a shouting match with your uncle at Thanksgiving. 

His teammates would agree on that argument. “I’ll talk about the debate topics and current events on the news with my mom and dad at the dinner table,” says Avery. “Debate facilitates those conversations. That’s an important part about debate, is that it facilitates dialogue, and it creates an open space for people to talk about their opinions.”

Good luck to our Speech and Debate team! To learn more about the competition, click here.