Hi-Line Living: Speech and debate roots run deep on the Hi-Line

Editor's note: This is a series of features about groups and activities for local youth. People who know of an activity they would like to see featured can call Tim Leeds at 265-6795 or email him at [email protected].

Montana speech, drama and debate state competitions begin today and former participants for Havre High School recall their fondest moments and how speech and debate has impacted their lives.

Current teams are competing today and Saturday in Belgrade for the Class A state tournament, Three Forks for the Class BC teams and the Class AA tournament is in Kalispell.

The head coach of the Havre team is Havre Daily News editor Tim Leeds.

Jacob Bachmeier competed at four Class A state tournaments, his first when Havre hosted it in 2012. He is known, now, for being one of the youngest state legislators after being elected to the Montana House of Representatives in 2016, when he was an 18-year-old and had just graduated from high school. However, Bachmeier said, he wouldn't be in politics if it wasn't for debate.

After this previous election cycle, it's hard to fathom that Bachmeier was introverted and had trepidation regarding public speaking.

"When I got to high school, I was shy and terrified of public speaking," he said.

Bachmeier added that he only won a couple of rounds in his first season of debate, but he was determined in his sophomore year to win more.

"I began to study philosophy, rhetoric and the structure of debate," he said. "I went on to win more and more rounds and placed at our divisional tournament."

In his junior and senior years, Bachmeier said he learned how to "properly research and file briefs for cross-examination of and rebuttals to my opponents."

"My confidence and ability to debate publicly grew," he added.

Bachmeier said he would get a rush of adrenaline every time he walked into a room and set his briefcase down. However, Bachmeir said, his best memories came outside of debate.

"I learned how to feel more comfortable socializing with people on a personal level," he said. "I enjoyed the camaraderie of my new friends and the many memories we made during practice and on our trips."

The memories that Bachmeier cherishes the most, though, he said, are the experiences he had with his dad.

"He taught me a lot about writing, rhetoric and philosophy," Bachmeier added. "We did not always agree, but he was the best teacher I ever had."

Bachmeier said he still considers himself an introvert and acknowledges that public speaking can be tough, but he has learned "to persevere, better connect with people on an individual level and speak to an audience."

Emily Simonson, a student at the University of Montana in Missoula, participated in speech and debate from Her sophomore to senior year in was dramatic interpretation of literature.

Simonson said she is working toward a minor in communication studies and believes speech and debate prepared her for the classes.

"I also feel like I can speak to people with confidence, both casually and formally, and speaking in front of crowds doesn't faze me," she added.

Simonson said her most memorable moments in speech and debate weren't necessarily from any of her competitions, but from the time spent with her teammates.

While many extracurricular activities are offered in high school, Simonson said, not all of them can teach more practical skills than speech and debate.

"I remember Mr. Leeds would always discourage us from screaming and cheering too loudly when our teammates placed at meets because we had to be professional at all times," she added. "You don't get those lessons in communication, confidence and professionalism anywhere else at that age."

Lucas Minnick, production assistant at KECI television in Missoula and a former Havre High assistant speech and debate coach, participated in Lincoln-Douglas debate and said he was in speech and debate for all four years at Havre High.

Minnick said the skills learned from speech and debate has had an impact on almost every facet of his life. He added that communication is a major part of everyday interactions.

"It's like you always have to talk to people ... either through written or spoken form," Minnick said. "It's just night and day between a person who can, you know, really make someone understand what they're saying and someone who can't."

Minnick said going to Las Vegas to compete on the national level was one of his most memorable moments. He added that he will often think of debates he did in high school and go over the argument in his head.

"It's kind of funny how those things echo around in your head," Minnick said. "It's completely changed how I've thought about everything. Every aspect of my life."

Minnick said he was at a gun range with a friend and there was a sign that said, "only loaded guns in the gun rack."

"We sat there for 45 minutes talking about whether or not you could put a loaded gun on the table or like, you couldn't put an empty gun in the gun rack," he added. "Then there was this other guy that we were shooting with who's just like, 'What are you talking about? Why are you talking about this?'"

Minnick said people should do speech and debate if they want to be successful in any part of their life.

"It's not really about becoming some sort of polished robot, or whatever, or manipulator. Or like some of those slick ambulance chasers you see on TV," he added. "It's more about everybody has really interesting things to say and express inside of them and they won't come out unless you practice doing it, unless you practice expressing them. It's about, like, revealing someone's true identity through this kind of gauntlet of getting up and embarrassing yourself."

"It's sort of like if somebody wants to be a good drawer, they got to draw a bunch of stick figures first and then the Mona Lisa. It's kind of like the same thing. You got to put yourself in tough situations and express things poorly before you can get the real you out there," Minnick said.

For anyone who is considering joining speech and debate, Minnick said, "join speech and debate."

He added that those who join won't regret it, and the team participates in many out of town competitions.

"It's not all just boring serious stuff," he added.

Suzanne Tilleman, Ph.D., is a professor at University of Montana's School of Business. According to her biography on the school's website, Tilleman, who also taught at Montana State University-Northern, started at UM in 2010 and has either authored or co-authored several articles for peer reviewed magazines.

Tilleman participated all four years in speech and debate she said in an interview. She competed in the Lincoln-Douglas debate format because she was a cheerleader also and, she said, she didn't have enough time to compete in all the other formats.

Tilleman said that practicing and competing helped develop her public speaking skills which she used in college and later on in her career. She added that the specific skills she learned were "critical thinking and structuring a logical argument, as well as developing confidence for speaking in front of people."

She added that her most memorable experiences from speech and debate are of her coaches, Axel Schmaing and John Musgrove.

"They were incredibly influential. They had such wonderful senses of humor and yet expected such a high level of performance from us, it made me work harder and do better," Tilleman said.

Tilleman said she remembered a time where she forgot to bring her evidence box to the competition and had to use logic to support her argument.

"I actually did quite well," she added. "So it was a huge learning, scary, but learning experience for me."

The skills learned in speech and debate are skills learned for life, she said. Participants also learn other things such as how to prepare, how to compete, how to be on a team and support others, she added.

Tilleman said recognition should be given to the coaches because they did a great job with the students and were very inspirational.

Musgrove, who served in the Montana Legislature after retiring from teaching, was an assistant coach for Havre High speech and debate.

He said he took speech classes in college and recalled one particular moment.

"I was prepared. I got up in front of the group and I completely froze," he said. "And the only reason I know is because when I unfroze I was sitting down. People had put me there. I decided then that I could teach it because there wasn't anybody that had a greater experience than that. If I could overcome it, then I could teach people how to do that as well."

Musgrove added that being able to speak publicly is an important skill to learn. He said learning public speaking skills in school is a great place to start because the situation is oftentimes less than ideal. Those kinds of situations help prepare an individual for whatever comes their way in the workforce.

Musgrove started working at Havre High in 1973 when Marilyn Seelinger - a speech and debate legend in the state - was coaching. He added that Havre has seen many good coaches come through its doors and a few have won Speech Coach of the Year honors from the Montana Forensic Educators Association.

Musgrove is one of those hall-of-famers, as are Seelinger and Schmaing.

Musgrove added that many speech and debate students have gone on to have accomplished careers as lawyers or educators at all levels.

"It just is evident that that's one of the elements that allows a person to realize their full potential," he said.

The bus rides were some of Musgrove's fondest memories, he said, as well as watching the camaraderie between the students.

Musgrove said speech and debate gives a person the skills to interact with others. It also helps to improve their presence when speaking before a group of people. He added that speech and debate isn't the only avenue for learning these skills.

"Speech and the ability to talk to groups is extremely important in our society," he said.

Musgrove added that even if students don't have aspirations for speech and debate, they should look into the various speech programs offered by their school.

"I think, in terms of creating good people with good citizenship, you have to be able to speak within a group or to a group," he said. "As much practice as you can have in that, the better off you are."

Many kinds of competition

Students have many different types of categories to compete in through speech and debate, Leeds said. The categories vary by school class, as well.

At Havre High, students can choose from three different debate events: policy debate, public forum and Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Policy debate is longer and more involved with teams of two students facing each other in hour-long rounds. The topic surrounds how the federal government should change its policy in a specific area.

Public forum has teams of two debating current issues in fast-paced rounds that last a half-hour.

Lincoln-Douglas debates are one-on-one debates in which students discuss moral or philosophical issues.

On the speech side, Class A has seven events in different areas.

In interpretation of literature, students can perform a clip or excerpt from books, poems, plays and so on. Interpretation of literature is split up into two sub-genres for humorous and dramatic literature. Class BC also offers spontaneous interpretation, in which the student doesn't know what cutting they will perform until the round starts and has just a few minutes to prepare.

Three memorized events are also available.

Students can write an original persuasive speech in oratory. They can write an informative speech which is usually performed with the aid of posters. They can also perform a speech that was written by someone such as Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr., along with an original analysis, in memorized public address.

Another event within speech is the short preparation speech. The two sub-genres within this category are impromptu and extemporaneous.

In impromptu, the student has three minutes to draft a three to five minute persuasive speech about a cartoon or quotation they are shown for the first time at the start of each round.

In extemporaneous, the student has 30 minutes to research and write a persuasive speech about a current event which is generally taken from the headline of a newspaper or magazine.

Class BC and A also offer a drama category. In this category, students can act out selections and are allowed to use props and costumes. These can be done as either humorous or dramatic and can be performed solo or duo. Other events include duo classical theater and mime, a solo event.

While Havre is a Class A school, it does not offer drama competition. Havre used to be Class AA from the 1970s through 1985 and Class AA stopped competing in drama in the 1970s. When Havre dropped to Class A for the 1985-86 season, the school stayed out of drama to focus on the speech events and avoid any clash with Havre High School's theater program, Leeds said.

A long but rewarding season

Debate season in Montana runs from the first week of October and ends the second week of February.

"It's a really long season and it takes a lot of work, a lot of effort for the kids to go through the whole season," coach Leeds said. "I have to commend all the kids who are willing to do the work, and it does give them a lot of experience every year."

Teams usually begin practice in October and the first tournament is the last week of October. Invitational tournaments run through the second week of January. Class A and Class BC then hold divisional tournaments the third weekend in January with qualifying students advancing to state the fourth week of January.

Class AA does not have divisional tournaments but goes straight from invitational tournaments to state. Head coaches for those schools select the students they want to compete in different categories with a maximum of four entries per event for each school.

For A and BC, schools can take no more than three participants per event to divisionals and the top 12 in each event from the eastern and western divisionals qualify for state.

In the second week of February, the national qualifier for the National Speech and Debate Association is held. Students from association member schools who qualify then compete at the national tournament in June.

The national tournament rotates to different locations and, this year, returns to Dallas where it was held in 2009 and 2015. Last year's national tournament was held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The last time Havre had a student qualify for nationals was in 2008 when Lucas Minnick went to Las Vegas to compete.

In Montana competition, schools from Class AA, A, B and C all used to compete at the same tournament, but the classes are now split. In the 1970s, Class AA split off and started holding its own state tournament. Then, 12 to 14 years ago, Class A and Class BC split and started holding separate divisional and state tournaments.

The split has also led to some differences in style and events. All Class AA schools are members of the National Speech and Debate Association and therefore compete under the rules similar to those of the association. However, not all Class A or BC schools are members and their rules were different. Those schools would also face different styles if they were to compete at a Class AA tournament, although the styles and events are starting to converge more.

Montana has a long history of forensics, the name for events similar to courtroom proceedings or public speaking events as are held in competitive speech and debate. It has been strong in north-central Montana, with some of the strongest teams in the state over the years coming from towns like Big Sandy, Malta, Chinook and Rudyard.

A new team was started this year at Hays-Lodge Pole High School and joined teams from Malta, Harlem, Chinook, Havre, North Star, Chester-Joplin-Inverness and Shelby and the other teams throughout the state.

Montana High School Association this year listed, as of Sept. 21, 96 Montana schools with speech, debate and drama programs, with Hays-Lodge Pole making 97.