An OPEN LETTER to the senior members of the WPHS Speech and Debate Team …
Most have concentrated on senior student/athletes missing out on their final spring seasons, but no one has mentioned THE STREAK and the fact you didn’t get the chance to defend and add to the incredible consecutive state championships that have filled trophy cases more than any athletic team in the history of the high school.
Team captains Laura Tighe, Lydia Bischof, and Marian Moss were expected to lead the Patriots to West Virginia University on March 13-14, but that the event was canceled as was the national tournament in Chicago.
Sure, chalk it all up to the coronavirus, but when each of you attended your very first speech-and-debate meeting, you knew you and your teammates could have ended up in infamy as streak breakers. Instead, it added to your motivation, and as juniors you helped bring home No. 40. It’s an unheard-of record, really, and as far as anyone can find, it’s the longest such streak in the nation.
But now there’s an asterisk, and the onerousness falls to the Class of 2021, a group of students who lost valuable experience this spring. Doubt it stops them, though, not with how that program has operated inside those walls since the consolidated school opened in 1976.
There were 10 of you seniors on the 2020 speech and debate team who will graduate on WTOV TV9 on June 1 from 7-8 p.m. and then, maybe, again on August 2, with their classmates at Wesbanco Arena. No matter the commencement scenario, we believe you all should be recognized in some form or fashion.
Sincerely,
We Appreciate You
