(From left) Henrico Supervisor Misty Roundtree, Richmond Region Tourism President and CEO Katherine O’Donnell, Richmond Forum Executive Director Heather Crislip, Deep Run High School senior Shelly Purser, Cosby High speech and debate coach William Waddell and Deep Run students Anna Weitzenhofer and Isabella Paperman attend the National Speech & Debate Tournament press conference in April.
As political divisions deepen and our discourse becomes increasingly volatile, Richmond just might have the antidote. Or roughly 7,000 of them.
Later this month, thousands of middle and high school students from across the country will descend on RVA for the National Speech & Debate Tournament. It will be the first time the event is held in the state. And for organizers, it couldn’t come at a better time.
“It’s an honor to bring this to Richmond,” says Heather Crislip, executive director of The Richmond Forum, which launched the local speech and debate initiative that culminated in this year’s tournament eight years ago. The relevance of the program today, she says, cannot be understated.
“It’s not just our political discord and the need for civil conversation, but honestly intergenerational and in-person communication skills are really lagging,” Crislip says. “So, to have a real, in-person conversation, where you’re getting feedback from people of a different generation, is just — it is the fabric of democracy and building a community that listens to each other and is able to manage differences.”
The program started with 171 students across 10 high school teams in Chesterfield County in 2018. Today, there are 43 schools with 926 students participating in speech and debate across metro Richmond. Sixteen of those students qualified for the national tournament, which takes place June 14-19.
“We have a bid process, much like you would think of the Olympics,” explains Scott Wunn, executive director of the National Speech & Debate Association. “There are certain needs that we have when you’re bringing 7,000 young people and nearly 12,000 adults to a city. We don’t find that every time.”
Volunteers, judges and competitors will be spread out over the entire region, taking over roughly 750 classrooms across six schools in both Henrico and Chesterfield counties. Opening day events will be hosted at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, while the final rounds of competition will be held at the Altria Theater. Other events will take place at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
“I will tell you that Richmond is extremely unique in having both an incredible convention center and also this beautiful historical theater where you could do the final round performances,” Wunn says.
One speech competitor is Malcom Hess, a junior at James River High School. Hess, however, has no idea what his seven-minute speech will be about.
“The fun thing about the event I compete in is I don’t really know,” Hess explains. “So, when I show up to the speech competition, I’ll be given a set of questions that all revolve around a central theme, related to current events in the U.S. Then, I will have 30 minutes to write a speech with a couple of sources to answer that question.”
His category of speech is known as extemporaneous speaking. Jessica Sanchez, his coach and teacher, says all the questions are open-ended.
“Those kids are going to be your experts in what’s going on in the world,” she says. “They spend months researching specific topics that are actually not specific at all. They’re kind of vague. It’s a little bit different from debating.”
Deep Run senior Shelly Purser, a three-time qualifier for the National Speech & Debate Tournament, speaks during the press conference in April.
For students like Hess, who are tackling current U.S. events, the key is making sure their speech hits the right notes and doesn’t devolve into opinion.
“I caution them on their topics if they are politically driven. Don’t marginalize yourself, don’t marginalize your audience,” Sanchez says. “Don’t say something that’s so one-sided to the other that a judge who’s judging you for the day couldn’t possibly be unbiased in their assessment of you.”
Sanchez, a key member of the Virginia District Committee for the National Speech & Debate Association, lobbied for Richmond to be chosen as a host city.
“I wrote a letter on behalf of the Virginia district to Scott, offering my confidence that there would be enough of us here that wanted to do the work,” Sanchez says. “Knowing that we have the Richmond Forum behind us, I was confident saying, ‘Put us in, coach.’”
Wunn, who’s hoping to sneak in a Flying Squirrels game while in Richmond, says having the Richmond Forum as a partner was key to selecting the city to host.
“Here you have an organization that’s devoted part of its mission to building out speech and debate infrastructure,” Wunn says. “Those are all things that we’re looking for in a really good partner.”
Richmond Forum officials estimate that the weeklong event will generate $22 million in economic impact.
For Misty Roundtree, an attorney and member of the Henrico County Board of Supervisors who attended a press conference in April announcing the debate tournament, it’s about helping young people learn how to absorb and analyze information, critique public policy and consider the opinions of those they may not agree with.
The foundation of democracy, in other words.
“The things that we took for granted as always existing, like democracy and the ability to have our voices and speak freely in the First Amendment, those are things that we can’t take for granted anymore,” she says. “It is not, in my mind, crazy to think that at some point, if we don’t work hard to protect institutions and activities like this, we may not have them.”
News Editor Scott Bass contributed to this story.
