For two years, the WPHS championship Speech and Debate team has taken on hosting its own tournament. This year’s Dr. Aulick Winter Classic Tournament saw 8 schools, 51 judges, 20 parent volunteers, and over 150 student competitors.
“ This is the second annual tournament but the first under the new name in memory of Dr. Neal Aulick. He was a major supporter of the WPHS speech and debate team. His two daughters were state and national level speakers. Their family has created a scholarship foundation that benefits one senior speech and one senior debate team member every year. It awards $1,000 respectively. Ginger Aulick, the late doctor’s wife, Afton, and Harper all worked at the tournament too as judges, tab room support, and awards. They are the epitome of what a family our team is,” Isabella Droginske, Kayla Nelson, and Jennifer Mathieu, Speech and Debate coaches explain.
The concept of hosting the competition was brought on by the desire to share Park’s campus with a variety of schools. “Honestly, we wanted to show off our amazing campus and prove that Wheeling Park Speech and Debate is a top program not only as competitors but all around! The best thing about hosting a tournament is feeling very proud of our home building and the community support. Everything at our tournament is “home grown” between CTE programs and local small business support like Greco’s and So Nuts 4 Donuts, and our incredible parent boosters!”
The event is truly school wide. Awards were made by the machine technology tool program under the direction of Mr. Fedorke. This year’s award included repurposed wood from the old gym bleachers. The CTE culinary program, under the direction of Mrs. Hillberry, provided all the food for the judge’s lounge.
In addition to school-based assistance, Grisell Funeral Home Services sponsored lunch for the entire Wheeling Park High School team, and Charlie Midkiff, a competitor for Duvall High School in the 80s, witnessed WPHS’s first win of the consecutive run (we are on the road to number 45 this year). Mr. Midkiff now lives in North Carolina but returns to West Virginia throughout the year with the goal of maintaining a vest interest in Speech and Debate. “He was our Tabroom guru and really ran the deep operations of the entire tournament. Again, he shows what a deeply rooted family this community is,” add Droginske, Nelson, and Mathieu.
Wheeling Park Speech and Debate took home first place speech, debate, and overall sweeps with various 1st place winners in a variety of categories.
You can see more from WPHS Speech and Debate (as well as a detailed list of competition winners) by following Wheeling Park Speech and Debate on Facebook or wphs.speechanddebate on Instagram.
