What a Way to Spend a Saturday

Last Saturday we met my dad at Riverton High School. My dad is the Speech and Debate Coach for Emery High School, and Speech Meet season is in full swing. What does this mean? It means that every weekend from January until March he will be at a different school around the state coaching and encouraging his students. There are many different events that his students participate in from, Student Congress to Dramatic Interp.



As a former student of Emery High School I also participated in said speech meets. My main strength was Oratory Speaking and I actually placed at the state meets each year. My dad says that I was, "very good". I know it may be hard to believe that I could throw down some mean speeches and debates, but it's true.



Not only that, but as a small girl I traveled the speech circut with my dad. Some of my earliest memories are of "helping" him at speech meets. When I got older I was actually helpful and just he and I would run entire region competitions. Our organization communication skills are very good, and could keep events and tabulations moving at a fast pace. Take my word for it, it's pretty impressive.



So, I thought my kids would like a little taste of the speech meet culture, this is why we were at Riverton High School. They were pretty impressed by the Wolf statues (Riverton Silverwolves), and the common's area steps were really good for running and jumping.


Carter kept yelling, "I FEED THE WOLFSES!" At the top of his lungs. Which was barely audible with all the other speech student related noise.




Trying to keep these two off the statues was futile. I finally gave up, and just started taking pictures. Cali didn't want to leave, and ran off into the catacombs of the high school halls. She was eventually located by the concession stand girl. I didn't know if I should hug her or beat her.






Here he is, famous debate coach and writer extrodinare. Take a look at all the "stuff" thrown everywhere. This is just part of the speech meet life. Dump your stuff and run off to your rounds to get your debate on!



In all seriousness, I must say that my dad has been doing this for literally all my life. He holds the record for the most trophies and competitions won in the history of college debate. I think he won almost 200 trophies in less than 2 years. No small feat. He has been improving the public speaking skills of generations of students. He has also written 20+ original humerous readings, many of which have won state competitons.