Local speech and debate students added to national team

Six local speech and debate students were added to the Western Montana National Speech and Debate team in World Schools Debate.

The team was named by the NSDA District Committee. World Schools Debate is an event that combines speech and debate skills, according to a press release from Glacier Speech and Debate Coach Greg Adkins.

Teams are made up of students from any schools in the district. The Western Montana district will have three teams compete in the virtual National Tournament in June. The gold team is made of five students from the Kalispell high schools, while the silver team includes one student from Columbia Falls.

Flathead’s Maayana Satler, Columbia Falls’ Callie Jo Johnson and Glacier’s Simon Roston, Jake Keller, Maddie Johnson and Bella Teggeman were named to the World Schools Debate Team.

Josh Munro of Glacier High was selected to coach the Gold team. Munro, a longtime Policy Debate Coach at Glacier, also served as a World Schools Debate Coach last summer.

Twenty-three students applied for the three five-person Western Montana World Schools Debate teams. Alyssa Leimkueler from Flathead High was named an alternate to the team.

These students join those local students who qualified for the nationals in February.