Speech season kicks off with local meet Saturday

About 650 students are set to compete Saturday in the Kalispell Classic Speech and Debate Tournament.

The tournament — formerly called the Kalispell Kick-Off — will be held at Glacier and Flathead high schools.

The tournament will feature defending state champions: Glacier, Class AA; Columbia Falls, Class A; and Missoula Loyola, Class B, as well as teams from Flathead, Corvallis, Hamilton, Missoula Big Sky, Missoula Sentinel, Polson and University High School in Spokane.  

Glacier is hosting this season’s tournament with help from Flathead, said Greg Adkins, tournament director and head coach at Glacier. All debate events will be held at Glacier and all speech events at Flathead.

“This has been a much unified process. I love this weekend because it showcases this great activity to the Flathead community,” Adkins said.

The public is invited to attend the tournament, which starts at 8 a.m. Round two will begin at 10 a.m., round three at noon, speech semifinals at 2 p.m. and finals at 4:30 p.m. An awards ceremony is scheduled at 7 p.m. in the Glacier High School Performance Hall.

Judges are still need for this and upcoming tournaments. Interested people may sign up online at www.kalispellspeechdebate.org.

The next speech and debate tournament at Glacier High School is the Valley Crosstown Talkdown on Dec. 13.