Kendley leads Polson speech team

WHITEFISH – The Polson High School Speech and Debate team competed at the Whitefish Invitational Speech and Drama meet on Saturday, Nov. 22 in Whitefish.

Fifteen teams competed at the meet.  All of the debate events were held at Whitefish High School, while speech and drama events were held at Whitefish Middle School.

During the concluding awards ceremony, Whitefish head coach Sara Mueller observed the tremendous contributions made by previous Libby head coach Shelley Fisher, who lost her battle with cancer earlier in the week.  The Libby team did not compete at the meet on Saturday.

“All of the coaches are just heart-broken over the loss of Shelley.  She did so much for Libby High School—she was not only a great teacher and coach, but she was a fantastic person as well.  Speech and drama in western Montana just lost a legend.”

Due to illness and other commitments, Polson High only brought a total of 11 competitors to the Whitefish meet: seven in speech and four in debate.

“As a team, it wasn’t our best performance of the season.  We ran into some stiff competition, and we had several kids just miss out on making it to finals, but I think we are continuing to improve.  I was particularly pleased with the debaters—we had two new kids compete this weekend, and they really did a great job. Kenyon Cairns finished with a 2-2 record, which is outstanding for a first-time competitor at such a large meet.”

“Haley Kendley, as usual, did a great job in Memorized Public Address.  She is also going to compete in Expository Speaking at our next meet, and I anticipate that she’ll excel in that event as well. ”

Polson Speech and Debate team has five meets remaining in the season.  Polson will compete again on Friday and Saturday, December 12th – 13th in Kalispell.

The finalists for Polson were:

8th Place, Policy Debate:  Annabelle Smith and Shannon McGinnis

3rd Place, Memorized Public Address:  Haley Kendley

Sweeps Results:

AA Speech: 1st - Flathead; 2nd - Glacier Navy; 3rd - Glacier Green

A Speech: 1st - Columbia Falls; 2nd - Hamilton; 3rd - Stevensville

B Speech: 1st - Loyola; 2nd - Ronan

A Drama: 1st - Corvallis; 2nd - Stevensville; 3rd - Frenchtown

B Drama: 1st - Lincoln County