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Judges sought for NHS debate tourney
The 20 or so members of the Nevada High School debate team will be hosting around 500 other debaters from 22 schools ranging in size from Sherwood to Kickapoo this Friday and Saturday in the annual Nevada Debate and Forensics Festival. This year's event has almost doubled from last year when 13 schools took part.
Angie Bin, Nevada's debate and forensics coach, said they will be using the entire school, including Wynn Gymnasium on Saturday, for the event. This way they will not need to use any other school.
"We had to limit the schools' number of entries due to space and the available help," Bin said.
In addition to the Nevada students needed to check in participants and judges, each classroom in which an event will take place will be staffed by a Nevada student.
The event also requires about 150 volunteer judges.
Bin said they are still in need of judges for Friday night and Saturday.
"We appreciate the support of the community," Bin said.
"This is our major fundraiser, so volunteering to help us is going to our squad," she said.
"This is a great fundraiser for the squad," she said.
While the larger number of schools has stretched their resources a bit, it does have a positive impact on the squad.
"We've never made so much money from entry fees before," Bin said, adding that some years, when they have had much smaller festivals, they barely made enough money to cover the $800 cost of the trophies they give out.
Bin said one of the perks of being a judge is the opportunity to eat in the hospitality room.
"We try to feed the judges well while they're here," she said.
This event is run by the students on Nevada's debate and forensics team, which gives them the opportunity to learn valuable leadership and organizational skills. They do the behind scenes work to make the event succeed, includes things like calling the people who have volunteered to be judges to let them know when they are to judge and to see if they are still going to be there.
"I'm not looking forward to calling all these judges," Kelsey Hammontree, tournament director said, Tuesday afternoon while she was going over the list of judges with Anna Jones, judge coordinator.
Hammontree, an NHS sophomore, said that as tournament director, she will be responsible for seeing that everything goes smoothly.
"I'll be running around the school making sure everything runs on schedule and doing whatever needs to be done," she said.
And while Kelsey is running around the school, Anna Jones said she will be sitting at table in the front lobby of the high school greeting the judges when they arrive and making sure they get the right information and to the right room.
"I'm kind of nervous, but I think we're going to do it OK," Hammontree said.
This year teams will be in town from Lamar, Clever, Bolivar, Glendale, Willard, Lebanon, Mt. Vernon, Marion C. Early, Ozark, Savannah, Hillcrest, Parkview, College Heights, Neosho, Monett, Waynesville, McDonald County, Kickapoo, El Dorado Springs, Republic, Carl Junction and Sherwood.