I feel a slight sense of trepidation as I approach East Helena Valley Middle School on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 13.
As I walk through the red doors and towards the table where coaches sit shuffling the papers that will assign me my fate, my thoughts race. Will everyone be able to tell that I still feel like I have no idea what I am doing?
Nearly 250 high school students are set to descend upon East Helena, which is hosting one of Montana’s largest annual Speech, Debate, and Drama meets. Every weekend from October to February, kids from around the state pile into buses, sometimes as early as 5 a.m., to compete.
The volume and frequency of Speech, Debate, and Drama competitions means that the judges for each event are all volunteers like me, with varying degrees of experience and understanding of the demands of the events. I can’t say I’m not nervous.
A few days before the competition, East Helena High School debate coaches Jon Moore, Kenzie Lombardi, and Christy Pierce hosted a training session for judges that wasn’t mandatory but was suggested. Looking at the handout that explains each event, I had no idea how anyone could make heads or tails of a judge’s responsibility without the 40-minute talk.
There are 15 events that students can participate in. Debaters chose between Licncoln Douglas, the one-on-one philosophical debate that seeks to prove their argument as more morally right than their opponent’s, public forum, which is a team debate focussed on current events, or another team debate where participants propose and argue for specific forms of policy.
Speech events include Original Oration, Impromptu Speaking, Informative Speaking, Extemporaneous Speaking, and finally Dramatic and Humorous interpretation. Debate and Speech each have distinct judging criteria and each event has a judging sheet with a specific format. Excluding the events which rely on improvisation, the students perform the same speech or debate each week, trying to improve based on the feedback from their previous performance.
What most strikes me is the coaches’ plea for us to judge the students on the merrit of their performances, not on our views of their personal presentation. East Helena Coach Moore tells horror stories of judges critiquing students’ clothes or the sound of their voices.
“People underestimate how much time and work they put into this,” Coach Moore tells me in an interview before the competition. Between the judge training and that comment, I walked into the building Saturday determined not to let any of the students down with a glib critique or an ignorant judgement.
My first event is a round of humorous interpretation. This, I’m looking forward to. I’m a recovering theater kid myself and I even participated in my high school’s version of speech and drama. I felt this, at least, I understand.
The room looks to be a band classroom with red and yellow plastic chairs arranged in an arch facing the white board. I take my seat at a desk in the corner and the four groups of students pairs filter in to put their numbers on the white board. Students aren’t allowed to tell judges their names or which school they attend. This is meant to keep judges from giving preferential treatment to students from their hometown.
It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud, which no doubt made me a terrifying judge, but I am deeply impressed by the performances. Whether it was the slapstick humor of an edited version of the hit comedy “Dumb and Dumber,” or the sharp wit of a skit detailing a savvy eight year old charging a directionless 25-year-old for life advice, the students conducted themselves with poise and, yes, humor. I fill out my score sheet and turn it into the coaches.
I have a little time before the debate rounds start so I head to the break room, a brightly lit classroom where some very room-temperature pizza is on offer. Judges waiting for the next event chat comfortably.
There are judges from every walk of life. Parents, truck drivers, lawyers, and even State Senators make an appearance. Most of the volunteers either have kids on the drama, speech, and debate team or participated themselves in high school.
I’m struck again by how much appreciation and admiration the competition inspires, even in adults. Parents rave about watching their child’s confidence grow and their critical thinking improve. One judge tells me the skills he learned in high school prepared him well for his job as communications director. It’s why he continues to volunteer as a judge, hoping to instill those skills in today’s kids. Speech and debate create a foundation for strategic thought and long-standing self-confidence.
Watching the Lincoln Douglas debate, I see how true that is. I mean, I’ve seen presidential candidates who demonstrated less poise and quick thinking than the students in this competition. For all my nerves, judging debate is far easier than I’d expected. As the East Helena High coaches said during training, we all recognize a good argument when we hear one.
After turning in my ballot, I’m preparing to leave when Coach Pierce encourages me to attend the award ceremony back at East Helena High School. I go mostly because I wanted to know if I judged any East Helena competitors (from what I can tell, it appears I did not).
At the awards ceremony, held in the basketball court with trophies Coach Moore’s wife made the night before. As I sit in the stands watching round after round of students line up for their honors, I’m struck by an odd thought.
At the risk of sounding ancient at the ripe old age of 25, I can’t help but look around the gym and be impressed by how high stakes life feels everything felt to me at 16.
Now, watching the competitors rush to each other to debrief their performances, bemoaning mistakes and celebrating moments of triumph, I feel like I’m standing on the other side of a ravine I hadn’t even realized I’d crossed. I see it in the white knuckle grip East Helena’s competitors hold on each other’s hands as they walk to stand next to the trophy table and in the little gasp of realization a competitor makes right before her name is called for a first-place prize. When, I wonder, did I slip into the monotonous routine of adulthood?
Maybe the folly of aging is we begin to assume we know anything at all and forget just how bigour lives should feel. Maybe, like each of the debaters and speakers at East Helena, we should regularly take time out to evaluate our performances. Find ways to look at the world anew and discover ways where we can improve ourselves.
Maybe there’s an excited young judge in all of us.