A total of 150 speech, drama and debate students from 14 schools attended the Neighbor Island Speech and Debate Qualifying Tournament at Parker School in Waimea on Jan. 17 and 18. Contestants competed in speech, drama and debate events with the hope of qualifying for the state tournament in April. The only other Big Island school to compete was Kohala High School in the speech category.
Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama, which hadstudents competing in all three categories, took the first place sweepstakes trophy. In this tournament, the sweepstakes trophy went to the winner of the drama, speech and debate categories combined. The winner’s points were derived from number of entries qualified and students who place.
Parker School, the current state debate champion, competed only in the debate category. The following Parker students placed and qualified for the state championship: Kosuke Kume, first place in novice Lincoln-Douglas debate; Savannah Harriman-Pote, third place in novice Lincoln-Douglas debate; Carrie Hiller, second place in championship Lincoln-Douglas debate; Sivan Najita, third place in championship Lincoln-Douglas debate; and Keala Prietto and Nohili Thompson, second place in advanced public forum debate.
Parker School had five total debate entries (individual and team) that qualified; Iolani, five; Punahou, three; Kamehameha-Kapalama, two; Trinity Christian, one; and Aiea, one.
The next qualifying tournament will be held Feb. 14 and 15 at Kamehameha Schools’ Kapalama campus on Oahu. The last qualifying tournament for states is the district tournament that will take place in March at Parker School.
For more information, visit parkerschoolhawaii.org.