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TF North students travel to Louisville for national speech and debate tournament

Information provided by District 215

CALUMET CITY, Ill. (June 11, 2022) – Five students from TF North High School traveled to Louisville, Kentucky this weekend to compete in the 2022 National Speech and Debate Tournament. Students competed this winter and spring as part of the school’s speech team, and coaches Sade’ May and Shaunwell Posley were so impressed with the team’s performance and improvement throughout the season that they decided to bring five students to the NSDA National Qualifiers competition that was held at Downers Grove South High School in March. Hundreds of students competed to earn one of the top three spots in their event needed to qualify for the national competition.

Junior Saniya Boyd-Morris will compete in the Informative Speaking event, with her original speech titled “1+1 = Sum…of These Parts.” Her speech informs the audience regarding the Sum of Parts Perception Phenomenon and the way people perceive masked faces in times of COVID 19. Students competing in this event research a topic and inform the audience with a ten-minute original speech.

Junior Tunmise Oluwole and senior Emma Green will compete in the Duo Interpretation event with a comedy piece titled “The History of Mankind…In Less Than 10 Minutes” by Ken Bradbury. The duo took sixth in the state of Illinois performing the piece and then went on to win first place at national qualifiers with it.

Senior Prince Ester will compete in the Dramatic Interpretation event with a piece titled “Called to Forgive.” The piece is from a memoir about the Charleston Church shootings by Anthony Thompson.

Freshman John McBeth III will be competing in the Prose and Poetry supplemental events, after falling just short of qualifying for a main event.

T.F. North attended the national qualifier competition for the first time this year and left as one of the Illinois teams with the most students qualifying for national competition. Principal Brian Rucinski said, “I am so proud of these students for all they have accomplished. They have worked incredibly hard, along with their coaches, to earn the opportunity to compete at the national level. I know they will represent our school, community and state well.”

The team will compete in Louisville on June 12–17.

TF North High School is located at 755 Pulaski Road in Calumet City.

Josh Bootsma
Josh Bootsma
Josh is Managing Editor at The Lansing Journal and believes in the power and purpose of community news. He covers any local topics—from village government to theatre, from business openings to migratory birds.