Douglas speech and debate wins big at year's first tournament

The Douglas High School speech and debate team has picked up right were they left off last season, with multiple big wins in their first tournament of the year.

Last year's successes culminated with DHS taking more students to nationals then any other school in Northern Nevada.

At the start of this year, the team competed at Fernley High School Sept. 25-26 at the Northern Nevada Forensic League's first tournament of the season.

Seventeen schools from Northern Nevada competed in five speech events and three debate events.

The following students from Douglas High School received awards for the Sept. 26 debate events: Evan Kleiner and Will Dornbrook, first place, senior policy debate; Kevin Kendrick, first place, senior Lincoln Douglas debate; Vicky Lopez, third place, senior Lincoln Douglas debate; Sedona Schat and Kaitlyn Barger, second place, senior public forum debate; Vicky Lopez, best speaker, Lincoln Douglas debate; and Will Dornbrook, best speaker, policy debate.

Additionally, the following students from Douglas High School received awards for their speaking events on Sept. 25: Kevin Kendrick, second place, senior humorous interpretation; Molly Elery, second place, senior impromptu; Nicole Romaneschi, third place, senior original oratory; Megan Frost, third place, senior poetry and prose interpretation; Noah O'Conner, fourth place, senior foreign extemporaneous; Evan Kleiner, sixth place, senior foreign extemporaneous; Sedona Schat, second place, novice impromptu; and Kaitlyn Barger, second place, novice original oratory.

The freshmen competitors from both middle schools also had a great showing in their first tournament ever. The following are the awards won by Carson Valley Middle School and Pau-Wa-Lu students: Evan Stokes from CVMS, fifth place, novice impromptu; Taylor Hubbard from CVMS, fourth place, novice original oratory; Devon Williams from CVMS, fifth place, novice original oratory; Bailey Gumm from CVMS, sixth place, novice foreign extemporaneous; and Olivia Bustillos from PWLMS, sixth place, novice impromptu.

The team has been able to flourish for the last few years due to the support and resources provided by the parents and community, said coach Paul Mileo.

The team thanked those all who have supported Douglas speech and debate over the years.

Their next tournament is Oct. 23-24 at Reno High School.