By Chelsea Peterson • Poland Regional High School

Caffeine. It’s one of the key elements to Speech and Debate. Now don’t get me wrong; we’re not encouraging participants to OD on Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, we just need a little help waking up on the mornings of tournaments. You’d be dragging a little as well if you had to wake up around five or six on a Saturday, only to spend the entire day at another school giving your speech (or debating) and praying that your competitors accidentally -‘trip’ down the stairs before they have a chance to get to your round.

Thankfully, it appeared as if the Poland Regional High School team was well prepared (and had access to the Pepsi machine) on Sat., Jan. 31, for the States tournament held at their school.

Poland claimed several Speech State Champions (Senior James Magee in Dramatic Interpretation, Sophomore Amanda Gray in Humor, and Freshman Kit Levine in Oratorical Declamation) as well as two Debate State Champion teams (Eric Williams/Devon Conway, and Max Levine/Ronan McNulty in the category of Public Forum). In addition, the team managed to take Runner-Up Sweeps in Debate.