Flathead in the hunt for another title

Flathead High School speech and debate competitors are hustling for a state title at Butte next weekend.

Flathead, a perennial speech powerhouse, placed third last year at the Class AA tournament.

This season, under new head coach Shannon O’Donnell, Flathead’s varsity team has earned one tournament championship, three second places and one third place.

O’Donnell noted that third-place finish in Bozeman Jan. 12 was just 20 points away from Glacier’s first-place sweepstakes score.

“To have it be so close is kind of exciting,” O’Donnell said. “I’m looking forward to the tight competition with Glacier.”

She said the young team members are putting in as many hours as they can into practice before state.

“The team’s biggest asset this year that’s kept us in the game is a young team with a really strong work ethic,” O’Donnell said. “They really practice hard, work hard, are open to constructive criticism. Basically, they are one of the most easily coachable groups that I’ve coached in a long time.”

It was a slow start in rebuilding the team at the start of the season.

“We were really down in numbers when the season started. We had about 40. I’m really proud of the way the team helped recruit,” O’Donnell said, noting that the team eventually rose to 121 members.

This is O’Donnell’s first year as head speech coach. From 2000 to 2002, she was assistant coach alongside Greg Adkins (then the Flathead coach, now coaching rival Glacier). Her first time coaching speech was at Butte for six years.

“It came with the job,” said O’Donnell, an English teacher. “But I love it.”

There are 36 Flathead competitors entered in the 42 events at state.

O’Donnell listed some of the top competitors expected to lead Flathead at state: Karl Boveng, senior, Humorous Interpretation and Serious Interpretation; Glenn Strickler, junior, Expository Speaking; and what O’Donnell described as a “good one-two punch,” senior Legislative Debaters Barrie Sugarman and Serena Brosten.

Boveng was the top scorer for Flathead this season.

His Humorous Interpretation piece, “Bobby Wilson Can Eat His Own Face,” is a one-act play. His Serious Interpretation is titled “Hands of My Father,” a memoir by Myron Uhlberg.  

“It’s really abstractly structured acting, which is fun,” Boveng said.

Strickler has placed first or second place in Expository Speaking throughout the season, O’Donnell said. Strickler’s performance is titled “The Significance of Kinesthetics.”  

Strickler, also a tennis player, said likes the idea of perfecting the details to execute a particular speech.

“I realized there’s so much you can work on,” Strickler said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.