Editor’s Note: Taylor Massey, who usually writes our Off the Field features, is not writing this one because she is featured in the article.
by David Brazeal
Republic High School’s speech and debate squad has qualified so many students to state and national competition, it can be hard to keep them all straight. The team qualified entries to the state tournament in ten events. In two different national tournaments – The National Catholic Forensic League Tournament in Washington D.C. and the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament in Louisville – Republic will have entries in nine and seven events, respectively.
Taylor Massey is one of the busiest students with state and national competition coming up. Massey qualified for state competition in Lincoln-Douglas debate. She qualified for the NCFL competition in the same event. And she qualified for the NSDA competition in Informative Speaking – the third time she has qualified in that event. She’s Republic’s only third-time qualifier.
This year, her speech is titled Words Speak Louder than Actions. “It’s a play on words. I talk about linguistics, and how people study linguistics and how it applies to our life,” she said.
Other highlights for Republic include Madison Liska qualifying for state and both national competitions for a second year in Dramatic Interpretation/Dramatic Performance; Samantha Determan and Jillian Horst qualifying for NCFL in Public Forum Debate for a second time; Ayden O’Connor qualifying for NSDA nationals for a second time; Talonah Sterling triple-qualifying in Public Forum and Oratory (although she chose to compete at NSDA in World Schools Debate); and two freshmen – Kennedy Silvey and Maecie Liska – qualifying for state and both national tournaments with their duo interpretation.
Although she’s qualified for nationals twice before, this year will be different for Massey because she actually gets to attend. In 2019, national competitions were canceled. In 2020, nationals were held virtually. In fact, this year is the first in which the qualifying tournament was held in person.
“It was a lot more stressful and definitely more difficult,” she said. “When you do it online, you don’t see anyone there and it’s less intimidating. So this time definitely felt more rewarding.”
Massey said she’s looking forward to being able to take a trip with her teammates this time around, and those teammates and other friends are a big part of what she gets out of speech competition.
“I have a lot of friends that I wouldn’t have met otherwise, because I don’t have classes with them. So I’ve gotten to know them since seventh grade and we’ve all become friends,” she said. “And I also just like being able to speak to people. It’s rewarding, getting to share your own message with people, whatever you want to speak about or whatever you want to act. I think really unique in that way, in comparison to a lot of other clubs.”
Here’s a full list of state and national qualifiers from coach Karissa Talty:
State
Chantal Ogbeifun – District champion in United States Extemporaneous Speaking
Arwen Ezell-McKinney – Informative Speaking
Madison Liska – Dramatic Interpretation, Poetry Reading
Kennedy Silvey and Maecie Liska – Duo Interpretation
Collin Chastain – Prose Reading
Noah Reese – District champion in Radio Speaking
Arwen Ezell-McKinney and Amber Lansdown – Policy Debate
Chantal Ogbeifun and Talonah Sterling – Public Forum Debate
Taylor Massey – Lincoln-Douglas Debate
National Catholic Forensic League
Washington D.C.
Samantha Determan and Jillian Horst – Public Forum Debate
Ayden O’Connor and Amber Lansdown – Policy Debate
Taylor Massey – Lincoln-Douglas Debate (2nd time qualifying)
Chantal Ogbeifun – Extemporaneous Speaking
Madison Liska – Dramatic Performance (2nd time qualifying)
Talonah Sterling – Original Oratory
Kennedy Silvey and Maecie Liska – Duo Interpretation
Brooklyn Eiserer – Declamation
Collin Chastain – Oral Performance
National Speech and Debate Association
Louisville, KY
Kaitlyn Walterich and Brooklyn Eiserer – Public Forum Debate
Ayden O’Connor and Amber Lansdown – Policy Debate
Taylor Massey – Informative Speaking (3rd time qualifying)
Madison Liska – Dramatic Interpretation (2nd time qualifying)
Kennedy Silvey and Maecie Liska – Duo Interpretation
Collin Chastain – Dramatic Interpretation
Talonah Sterling, Samantha Determan, Tarina Amant, Jillian Horst, and Arwen Ezell-McKinney – World Schools Debate