Malinda Perez did not expect success to come so quickly.
Perez is speech and stage production teacher at MacArthur High School and is preparing for the school to host the first MacArthur Highlander Holiday Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament on Friday and Saturday. She expected only three schools – Lawton High, Eisenhower and MacArthur – to participate. As of Wednesday, 17 schools from across Oklahoma had registered for the two-day event.
“We didn’t know it was going to be so big until about a week ago,” Perez said.
Some of the schools coming include Hollis, Rush Springs, Elgin, Enid, Moore, Edmond North and other schools from the Oklahoma City metro area. Those students will compete in about 50 classrooms at MHS and in the auditorium. So many students and coaches are coming that Perez didn’t think MHS would be large enough to host the tournament.
The idea for hosting the tournament originated with the students, Perez said.
“I didn’t think we were ready,” Perez said. But she didn’t back down from the challenge. “Onward and upward is my philosophy for the program.”
Her students have been preparing for the tournament since October by setting up the rules and tiebreakers, making awards, and determining the brackets.
Perez said hosting the tournament in Lawton will be a huge benefit to local students. Normally, Lawton students must travel to speech and debate competitions, most of which are held in the Oklahoma City area.
Volunteers in the Lawton-Fort Sill community have stepped up to make the tournament a success, Perez said. Milano’s is providing meals and HTeaO and Nothing Bundt Cakes also are making donations. A former teacher donated some trophies and several community members have been tapped to act as judges.
Another benefit to holding a tournament in Lawton is that parents will be able to see their students compete, some perhaps for the first time.
McKinney Crawford, who has been a speech and debate member for three years, said she has had only one parent come to one tournament because of travel issues. Perez said sometimes parents can’t see their children compete because the tournaments are held out of town.
Perez hopes the tournament will draw attention to the programs at the local high schools.
“I’m hoping it gets some of the students aware of the activity,” Perez said. “They just need to know there are activities out there for them.”