Seven Wood River High School speech arts students have qualified for the Idaho High School Activities Association State Class B Debate competition March 12-13 at Vallivue High School in Caldwell.
They are senior team captain and four-year debater Matt Lichtenberg, Jake Miczulski, Ryan Buell, Eric Boyle, Kevin Cooley, Will DeBree and Coleton Bailey. Alternates are freshmen Michael Gillette and David Maxwell. Coaches are Carol Stilz and Susan Worst.
Six of the seven Wood River state qualifiers are entered in the Public Forum category in which two-person teams argue current topics that change monthly. The other state qualifier is in classic Lincoln-Douglas one-on-one debate.
Going undefeated in District 4 Public Forum debate competition Feb. 27 at Twin Falls High School were the Hailey teams of Miczulski and Buell, Boyle and Lichtenberg, and Cooley and DeBree. Sophomore Coleton Bailey went 3-1 in L-D.
The district Public Forum topic was on political lobbying, and the state topic centers on affirmative action in the U.S. Lincoln-Douglas district topic was on economic sanctions in foreign policy. The state topic is about jury nullification.
Rounding out Wood River's Public Forum Debate Team are James Landes and Nick Weber, Trevor Brand and Emmet Fortuin, and alternates Madi Hendrix and Lex Shapiro. Lincoln Douglas debaters included Kelly Collins, Viridiana Hurtado Silva, Maggie Williams, Wyatt Griffith and James T. Sutton, with alternates Dylan Simpson and Lauren Bryant.
In other news, debate teacher Stilz won her first Diamond Award through the National Forensics League.
