Hurricane wins Region 9 debate championship

Team Hurricane takes a picture with the Region 9 debate trophy after winning the region debate competition, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Dustin Drake, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Hurricane High School took away the top honor at the Region 9 debate competition with Dixie and Desert Hills right behind. Cedar, a team that finished last in the standings just a year ago, worked their way into the top four this season while Hurricane head coach Rich Hill was honored.

Team Cedar at the region debate competition, Date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Dustin Drake, St. George News

“It was another very close competition this year,” Dixie High head coach Dustin Drake said. “The level of talented debaters keeps increasing in Southern Utah. We have tremendous coaches across the entire region.”

Drake included Hill among the coaches worthy of recognition.

“It was great to see Rich Hill be recognized for his dedication to speech and debate,” he said. “He has been a debate coach for three decades and is retiring this year. It’s great that Hurricane got the team win as the ultimate honor to Rich’s hard work and skill.”

For the Cedar Reds, a team that made a big jump from just a year ago, head coach Josh Maher was happy that his team qualified for the entire competition at state this season.

Team Desert Hills at the region debate competition, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Dustin Drake, St. George News

“Last year we were dead last at region, and it is fun to see growth and improvement with the kids,” Maher said. “It was an honor to bring Rich Hill in front of all the teams and (with him) recite the parts of speech rap 22 years after he taught it to me at Hurricane High School. He was one of the most influential teachers I have ever had and it was great to be able to present him with a Lifetime Service Award. We had great judges, students and coaches involved and it was a lot of fun.”

For Hill, he spoke on how impressed he is with the other coaches in the region and how Region 9 is known for, “friendly, efficient, exciting, good-sportsmanship tournaments.”

Below are the final team rankings as well as the individual rankings.

Team rankings
  1. Hurricane.
  2. Dixie.
  3. Desert Hills.
  4. Cedar.
Individual rankings by event

Lincoln Douglas

This is a one-on-one debate that should be centered on moral or value-based argumentation and the topic dealt with the moral implications of predictive policing policies.

  • 1st, Desert Hills – Bradley Habel.
  • 2nd, Desert Hills – Gage Chapman.
  • 3rd, Hurricane – Bella Bird.

Public Forum

This debate pits teams of two against one another, and it centers around the positive and negative impacts of a decision.

The topic for this debate dealt with the impacts of increasing nuclear energy production in the United States.

  • 1st, Dixie – Thomas Graham and Kaitlyn Evans.
  • 2nd, Desert Hills – Parker Boyce and Ethan Rapoza.
  • 3rd, Dixie – Dallin Bundy and Annabelle Taliva’a.

Policy

Team Dixie at the region debate competition, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Dustin Drake, St. George News

This debate places teams of two against one another. One team must propose a plan of action to implement a specific policy while the other team must demonstrate why the plan is inadequate.

The topic for this debate dealt with U.S. arms sales to foreign entities.

  • 1st, Cedar – Maxwell Workman and Graciela Engst.
  • 2nd, Hurricane – Jazzlyn Shannon and Samuel Raddatz.
  • 3rd, Hurricane – Kaylee Nelson and Abbe Wadley.

Congress

This debate mimics a session of congress. Bills are proposed and debated while students are expected to follow parliamentary procedure and deliver speeches for or against the passage of the proposed bills.

  • 1st, Snow Canyon – Katherine Park.
  • 2nd, Canyon View – Nelson Collins.
  • 3rd, Cedar – Caleb Nelson.

Foreign Extemp

This speaking event requires students to have a firm grasp of current events on a global scale. Students draw three random topics and select one. They then have 30 minutes to write and memorize an original seven-minute speech.

  • 1st, Desert Hills – Carson Miller.
  • 2nd, Hurricane – Jazzlyn Shannon.
  • 3rd, Desert Hills – Jana Nassar.

National Extemp

This speaking event requires students to have a firm grasp of current events on a domestic scale. Students draw three random topics and select one. They then have 30 minutes to write and memorize an original seven-minute speech.

  • 1st, Hurricane – Caleb Gill.
  • 2nd, Desert Hills – Annie Smith.
  • 3rd, Dixie – Eliza Goodwin.

Impromptu

This speaking event requires students to deliver a five-minute speech with only two minutes of prep time. The topics are selected at random and vary.

  • 1st, Dixie – Dallin Bundy.
  • 2nd, Hurricane – Maisey Peterson.
  • 3rd, Snow Canyon – Shellsea Ramirez.

Original Oratory

For this speaking event, students deliver an original, memorized speech between eight and 10 minutes in length. The speech is meant to be persuasive, but the student has the ability to choose the topic.

  • 1st, Desert Hills – Ava Graff.
  • 2nd, Hurricane – Joseph Carlisle.
  • 3rd, Desert Hills – Bradley Habel.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!