Havre students compete at national debate qualifiers

Press release

The competitors the Havre speech and debate team sent to the national qualifier tournament in Bozeman saw some success against tough competition over the weekend, though none made the cut to travel to nationals.

“I was hoping we could send some students to Salt Lake City in June,” said head coach Tim Leeds, “but they did well against some of the toughest competition in the state. I am proud of how our team did for the entire season and this weekend in Bozeman.”

The Havre students competed against some of the best in the state from all classes of schools at the tournament, with the policy debate team of Trenton Parrotte and Trenton Smith and the Lincoln-Douglas debaters Jacob Bachmeier, Patrick Leeds and Kaleb Gardner all competing in double-elimination sudden-death competition.

All Havre debaters made it past the guaranteed first two rounds, with Leeds and Gardner each going 1-2. Parrotte and Smith and Bachmeier all went 2-2, advancing to losses in tough rounds Saturday morning.

“I was hoping, as well, to take a few more speakers to the tournament to try to go to Salt Lake, but too many conflicts arose this year,” coach Leeds said. “Hopefully, next year we can field a pretty full squad to compete for the chance to travel to nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2017.”

The speech and debate team will wrap up its season with an awards dinner Tuesday, March 1, at the high school cafeteria.