The OHS speech and debate team is set to compete in the Jefferson City Capital Classic Speech and Debate Invitational. 14 students plan to compete in the tournament.

The team just came off a big win at The Greater St. Louis Speech Association. This association held six preliminary rounds in the fall for debate, public speaking, oral interpretation, and congress event. OHS competed a week and a half ago and the team took 3rd place in debate, 3rd place in oral interpretation, 2nd place in public speaking, and 2nd place in overall sweepstakes.

OHS had many students who won individual awards. Emma Sona (10) and Vince Marinaro (10) took 1st place in Congressional Debate, 2nd place speaker went to Sona (10) and Olivia Weigl (11). In the Lincoln Douglas Debate, 3rd place went to Ellie Sona (10) and 4th to Jenny Keeton (11). In Policy Debate, 4th place went to Sydney Montague (11) and Katie Kohler (11). In Original Oratory, Montague took 2nd place and she also took 2nd place in Poetry Interpretation. Kohler came in with 1st in that competition. And in Humorous Interpretation, 2nd place went to Sean Kleffner (11).

This year there was also a new award called the Most Valuable Player which meant that this person won an award for accumulating the most points across debate, public speaking and interpretation in preliminary and final rounds. Montague came in 3rd and Kohler came in 2nd.