Strong showing at nationals: BHS speech and debate team competes at nationals

Members of the Brainerd High School speech and debate team put in a solid performance at the 2017 National Speech and Debate Association tournament June 18-23 in Birmingham, Ala.

Recent 2017 BHS graduates Danny Stokes and Luke Norquist made it into the knockout rounds of the tournament in public forum after an odd situation in the preliminary rounds, coach Dave Pritschet said. It was the first time a BHS public forum duo broke into the knockout rounds at nationals, he said.

Stokes and Norquist completed the six preliminary round matchups and felt good about how they did, Pritschet said. But they didn't see their names in the list of teams who broke into the knockout rounds, he said, so they thought they were done.

Pritschet went to go judge a round in a different event. When he turned his cellphone after the round was over, he found an email from Stokes. Organizers found a lost ballot from one of the rounds Stokes and Norquist competed in and determined they had won, pushing them into the knockout rounds.

"If I hadn't been judging that seventh round, I would have collected all the kids and brought them back to the hotel," Pritschet said. "And we never would have known."

Stokes and Norquist made it into the third elimination round, putting them at least in the top 50 duos in the U.S. in public forum, Pritschet said.

"I got to watch their very last round, because they're seniors," Pritschet said. "Of course I disagreed with the judge's decision."

Prior to the last elimination round for Stokes and Norquist, Pritschet said he gave them a small pep talk.

"Look, if you win, great, you keep debating," Pritschet said. "If you lose, we'll go to the Waffle House."

Five other students competed at nationals. Camryn Schmidt, another 2017 BHS graduate, competed in extemporaneous speaking at nationals. Because of one bad round of scores, Schmidt failed to break into the knockout rounds of the competition, Pritschet said. She qualified for nationals the last two years in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and broke into the knockout rounds both years.

Incoming junior Maddie Schuld, incoming sophomore Julia Chock, 2017 BHS graduate Patrick Meyer and incoming sophomore Andrew Mendez competed in World Debate and did not break into the knockout rounds.

The team visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute during the trip, which they enjoyed, Pritschet said. Pritschet made his return to Saw's Barbecue, a restaurant the team ate at in 2012, the last time the national tournament was in Birmingham. The food there was as good as he remembered, he said.