{"id":2204,"date":"2011-10-24T10:43:20","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T15:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=2204"},"modified":"2014-04-07T07:16:16","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T12:16:16","slug":"phs-speech-team-is-left-with-large-shoes-to-fill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=2204","title":{"rendered":"PHS Speech Team Is Left With Large Shoes to Fill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Plymouth High School's Speech team hopes to expand its trophy collection this year. Photo by: Matthew Libersky<\/p><\/div>\n

By Matthew Libersky<\/em><\/p>\n

For Plymouth\u2019s Speech and Debate team, a new year brings new faces and presents new challenges. This year, they are left to fill the shoes of the several of last year\u2019s seniors who were vital to the team.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At this point, it is hard to gauge the specific skills of their freshmen, as at this point they have only started focusing on preparing the newcomers for the season. \u201cEvery year, we simply look to fill the spots of the graduated seniors and go from there. Many of last year’s seniors did acting\/interpretation events, so the door is open for our younger students in these events to establish themselves,\u201d teacher Mr. David McKenzie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe call-out meetings are where we’ll really start to get a feel for the amount of people who will be on the team,\u201d senior Kelsey Shaffer said.<\/p>\n

Among the seniors they are trying to \u201creplace\u201d is Bryt Hiatt. \u201cBecause I am in [extemporaneous] and impromptu, I particularly notice the absence of Hiatt, who taught me my event. The same is true for every other senior in their respective events. Their leadership always leaves big shoes to fill, and we strive to do the same for the year behind us,\u201d Shaffer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always trying to help prepare novice and teach them about their events, but we are mostly preparing for Sectionals, districts, state, and two national tournaments,\u201d senior Olivia Hilliard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the seniors were amazing speakers, and they all played a huge part in the team,\u201d senior Ashton Morrow also commented.<\/p>\n

However, they were in a similar situation last year, but, as senior Rebecca Brumbaugh said, \u201cNo one expected Plymouth to be competitive, and we weren’t. Our coach told us, that at the rate we were going, we had zero chance of succeeding at state. We proved him and the rest of the state wrong. A team who had been unsuccessful, divided, and lazy came together and worked harder than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, they missed winning the state tournament by one point. \u201cWe want to have a Plymouth student in every final round at that [upcoming] tournament. And we want to bring the Lawson back where it belongs … the Plymouth High School Speech Trophy Case!\u201d<\/p>\n

Brumbaugh, Hilliard, Morrow, Pickell and Shaffer are the members of the \u201cExecutive Council,\u201d the group of students who set the team\u2019s major goals for the season.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Matthew Libersky For Plymouth\u2019s Speech and Debate team, a new year brings new faces and presents new challenges. This year, they are left to fill the shoes of the several of last year\u2019s seniors who were vital to the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2204"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9056,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions\/9056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}