When people think about extracurricular activities, their minds immediately go football, baseball, or basketball. Though within Poland Seminary one extracurricular goes completely unmentioned, speech and debate.

These kids spend hours rehearsing speeches, researching, and writing. The team competes every Saturday and some tournaments can last from 8am to 8pm. The team is run by head coach Jodi West and assistant coaches Jen Bracken and Lindsey Workman. Poland’s speech and debate team is one of the best in the entire state of Ohio. Resident Lincoln-Douglas debater Naiden Jones has the most NFL (National Forensics League) speaker points in the entire Youngstown district. The team has had over 10 kids qualify for the OHSSL State Tournament in 2016 and 5 more qualify for the NFL National Tournament in 2016. This past weekend on October 29 at the Congressmen Tim Ryan Speech and Debate Tournament,  Meredith Lea placed 4th in congressional debate, Corrine Kramer placed 6th in humorous interpretation, and Yiannoula Katsadas placed 5th in declamation.

This was only the first of many tournaments to come this season, so as this season continues the team will compete all over the state of Ohio and all over the country. On Saturday, November 5th the team will be competing at Columbiana High School. So next time, when you think of an extra-curricular remember just how hard this team and the kids on it truly work.