Competing in multiple competitive rounds over the three days, the students of the Norman North Speech and Debate team that were selected to go to districts, spent weeks of hard work in preparation of this event. They also attended other local tournaments. The Speech and Debate coach said, “What I think is different about districts is the atmosphere and the sheer amount of rounds a student has to compete in.” The coach continued, “it’s a longer competition than the normal tournaments we have to compete in. Just making sure we all feel prepared for a marathon, not a sprint.” Their effort shone through to the results with ten people this year being sent to nationals and more than 16 students passing preliminary rounds. 

Districts is a tournament held once every year hosted by the NSDA. All schools in the state are able to enter four competitors in each event ranging from debate to acting events. This year, Ms. Russell entered a lot of novice debaters. “Districts every year is very rewarding,” she said, “what I found uniquely fulfilling about this year’s districts was getting to see how well our team supported one another. We brought a lot of new or first-year students this year, and getting to watch some of our veteran competitors show some of our new students the ropes really bonded us as a team.” 

Braxton Collett has been doing Speech for five years and qualified in Dramatic Interpretation and Original Oratory in this year’s districts. Despite the underrepresentation of acting, Braxton broke the streak and became the first qualifier from Norman North speech in a few years. “It feels good to be able to represent our school nationally,” he said, “It’s kinda crazy and it took a little to let it sink in.”

Lastly, Norman North had the honor of receiving the Last Chapter award. It is a cumulative award meaning that every single event or competition adds points to a team and each year the award goes to the team with the most points, but then after receiving it their points reset. “It takes a minimum of seven years to receive it again,” says Ms. Russell, “we were able to accumulate more points than any other year in a seven-year period.” So coming home with pride, Norman North will be making the trip to Arizona in June for Nationals.