Cookeville High School Speech and Debate Team Competing at Nationals

Cookeville High School’s Speech and Debate Team has made it to Nationals for the second year in a row.

Coach Shane Cunningham said eight of his team members qualified. Cunningham said he has several students competing all day on Wednesday in the supplemental events trying to get into the finals.

“And with so many competitors it’s really hard to guess how well it’s going to go,” Cunningham said. “Even a really really talented kid, if they do not do great in one round of competition, that could be enough to knock them out of finals and out of the competition.”

Cunningham said each student had earned 25 points over the past year in various competitions to earn the right to compete at regionals. He said they had to earn one of the top three positions at regionals in order to compete at Nationals.

Cunningham said the students also had to fund raise to pay their way.

“We bootstrap everything on the speech team so we are completely student and parent funded,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said that fact has the kids fully invested in the competition.

“I’m super proud of the effort they put forward to get here and to compete,” Cunningham said. “And I just love my kids.”

Cunningham said the team would find out which kids have made it to the finals by Thursday afternoon.