Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted Apr. 2, 2008
Led by Kylea McMurray, Katie Allum, and Jessica Cameron, the Pirate speakers returned from the Nevada State Forensics tournament with their third state championship trophy in three years.
The Pirates’ team effort put 79 points in the books to rank them ahead of Bishop Manogue High School and Churchill County High School to win the Division II title. Moapa Valley finished fourth in the field of thirty-five Nevada schools. Green Valley High school won the Division I title.
Kylea McMurray scored big for the Pirates by winning the congress state title and finishing third in oratory. Katie Allum finished second in oratory and earned team points in policy debate with her partner Josh Chandler by winning three rounds before being knocked out of semi-finals in round four. Jessica Cameron broke to finals and placed fifth in dramatic interpretation of literature.
Moapa Valley competitors consistently placed in the top three in their rounds which resulted in the high team total. Speakers like Katie Allum and Jonathan Oglesby missed going to finals in their specialties of expository speaking and extemporaneous speaking, but earned big points for the team with their high rankings.
Josh Chandler, Kylea McMurray, and Josh King swelled the team total in extemporaneous speaking. Chandler and Steven Abbot scored in humorous interpretation of literature, and Kelsey Martin added in dramatic interpretation of literature. Calvin McMurray contributed in expository speaking. The duo interpretation of literature teams of Sarah Burke, Steven Abbot, Jessica Cameron and Nick Brough increased the point total with their high ranked rounds.
Pirate debaters earned points with their win-loss records. Josh King, Josh Garlick, Wendy Cook and Kelsey Martin earned points in public forum debate. Jonathan Oglesby and Morgan Soderquist added to the team total in Lincoln-Douglas debate while Calvin McMurray and Gordon Knighton earned points in policy debate.
Sarah Burke earned high marks in the senate preliminary competiton, but did not advance to the super senate. She was joined by Nick Brough in the senate while Jesse Madril and Steven Abbot fought it out in congress.
Pirate coach Harold Tusler was especially excited with the win. “After losing some big scorers to graduation last year, we weren’t sure where we would get enough scoring this year to be competitive at the state level. We made some good decisions about how to fill our slots and everyone stepped it up a notch or two to get the results we needed to win this third state title in three years. I am extremely proud of this group of young students for what they have accomplished this year.”
This state tournament nearly winds down the competition for this year. Individual students can compete in April with other students in the Golden Desert District to earn the right to compete in the National Forensics League Tournament held in June. This year the national competition will be held in Las Vegas.
