Skowhegan Area High School’s team won the Maine Forensic Association’s Maine State Speech and Debate Championship Tournament in Skowhegan on Jan. 25. The nine-member team also won the Maine Principals’ Association Sportsmanship Award. Photo courtesy of Skowhegan Area High School Facebook page

SKOWHEGAN — Skowhegan Area High School’s team of young orators emerged as the top team in the state yet again.

The nine-member team, which had an undefeated season, won the Maine State Speech and Debate Championship Tournament, hosted Jan. 25 at Skowhegan Area High School.

The team also took home the Maine Principals’ Association sportsmanship award, according to a post on the high school’s official Facebook page.

That’s a rare feat, said Jon Moody, Maine School Administrative District 54 superintendent of schools. The local police and fire departments gave the winning team a trip around town to mark its accomplishment, he said.

The state’s annual debate competition is organized by the Maine Forensic Association. This year was the second in a row Skowhegan hosted the tournament.

Maura Smith, Skowhegan’s coach, said the team does not compete at nationals due to the time and the expense involved, so the team’s season is now over.

More than a dozen Maine schools competed this year, according to Smith, who leads the team with assistant coach Tim Wheeler. Skowhegan last won the competition in 2021, Smith said. The team also took top honors in 2019 and 2017.

“Just seeing everyone come together in space for a shared goal, shared interest, is awesome,” said 16-year-old junior Charlie Staples of Skowhegan. “Getting to have everyone throughout the state that is part of speech and debate here is just a great thing.”

The competition features 13 speech categories, ranging from extemporaneous speaking to oral interpretation of literature, and individual results contribute to an overall team score.

“It’s all over the place,” said Gabrielle Goding, also a 16-year-old junior from Skowhegan. “You can do things from, like, talking about political things to playing a flute and wearing caps on your head and singing.”

Staples said he won first place in the storytelling category, which involves the retelling of a story using props and costumes, performing the children’s book “Caps for Sale.” Staples also took second place in humorous interpretation with an adaptation of “The Butter and Egg Man” by George S. Kaufman.

“It’s about a Broadway producer kind of tricking somebody into putting money into his failing play,” Staples said.

Gabrielle Goding, also a 16-year-old junior from Skowhegan, said she competed in dramatic interpretation, performing “The 146 Point Flame” by Matt Thompson, and placed second in oral interpretation of literature.

That category involves combining different works to tell a story or communicate a theme, Goding said. She said she compiled portions of the musical “Chicago,” two poems by Sylvia Plath, and excerpts from the novel “Clytemnestra” by Costanza Casati.

Goding said she developed the piece over several months, editing it, removing pieces and adding others.

“It definitely looks a lot different from my very first meet to states,” she said.

The team competed at four other meets this year, in Farmington, Cape Elizabeth, Bangor and Poland, and each competition helps to shape the pieces, Staples said.

“Throughout the season, after every meet we go to, we get individualized comments from all the judges,” Staples said. “So we’re able to look at those comments and take the time to improve our piece and improve our performance as much as we can using their comments and their ideas.”

Smith, the coach, said a combination of feedback and lots of practice are key to success.

“It is an ongoing process, with the goal of improving the same pieces throughout the season,” she wrote in an email. “As a team, we practice weekly, sometimes twice a week. Students also rehearse on their own, outside of team practices. A critical factor in the team’s success is that students support each other and give each other constructive feedback; although they are competing for placements in individual categories, the individual wins add up for overall team points.”