Douglas students up for speech and debate

Douglas High School's speech and debate team took home several trophies from a tournament held in Elko March 3-4.

The team placed third overall in the sweepstakes awards in the regular season tournament and received first-, second- and third-place trophies in other team and individual events.

Douglas and the best high school debate teams from all over the Nevada will compete in the state tournament at the University of Nevada, Reno, March 17-18. The winners of that contest will go on to a district meet and possibly the national speech and debate tournament in Arlington, Texas.

Karen Heine and Kaycee Green coach Douglas' speech and debate team.

"Policy debate is something speech and debate excels in," Heine said. "They study a topic all year and get boxes of evidence. They're gung ho on this."

Sophomore J.R. Stevens was in the California state tournament last year and participates in individual events for the Douglas team.

"I'm in public forum debate," said Stevens. "I usually do policy like, 'will micro-investments work to solve poverty?'"

"I did, 'Can Iran play well with others?'" said team member Kat Lambrecht. "I made the world scheme similar to a playground."

Lambrecht said the team practices debate sometimes until 9 p.m. to come up with evidence for their arguments. They participate in ten tournaments during the regular season.

The speech and debate team is holding a spring craft fair April 1 to raise funds for the team's tournament trips. To rent booth space or for more information, call 782-5136 x1604.