Lend us your ears

1,100 students compete at Ohio speech and debate state finals held in Austintown

AUSTINTOWN -- Teri Dutton, Austintown speech and debate coach, took some time out from her busy Saturday running some behind-the-scenes tasks for the Ohio Speech & Debate Association state finals to celebrate with a few of her students who made it to the semifinals.

"These kids sure get excited but I am so proud of them … you can't help but to get excited yourself," she said as the celebration mounted in the high school cafeteria.

The Austintown school campus played host to the state tournament that began Thursday evening and concluded with the awards ceremony Saturday evening in the high school auditorium. In between, Dutton said she spent the last year getting volunteers lined up and lining up enough food to feed about 1,400 people.

"I can't thank enough our food service and custodial staff and the school administration for supporting us in this endeavor," said Dutton, who has spent time at both Austintown Fitch and Warren JFK in her 22 years of coaching speech and debate. "I always want to salute two area restaurants -- Barry Dyngles and Marino's restaurant -- for giving us food at a heavily discounted rate."

She said some 400 judges got to eat for free, while students had to pay for their food through the cafeteria line.

"We've been working hard core for about the last month to get this thing together, and I still had to prepare my students for the tournament," Dutton said noting the efforts of her assistant couches Jake Reid, Joe Curry, Jason Long and Faith Marscio. “They were the ones who actually coached all the finalists.”

Five of Dutton's students made it to the finals, Brayden Melia in Congressional debate, the duo of Natalie Ciccone and Merrill Voytko, Jared Giovannone in humor and Brooke May in drama.

Students compete in seven speech categories and four debate events, including Lincoln-Douglas, Congress, Public Forum and Policy.

Dutton said her 74 volunteer workers at the tournament included former speech and debate students, parents from South Range and Austintown and current National Honor Society students at Fitch.

Taylor Bennington, a Cleveland attorney who competed in speech and debate when he was at Highland High School, will be doubling up as executive director of the state association upon the retirement of Paul Moffitt. He said some 2,000 people, including about 1,000 competitors from the state's seven districts competed this weekend in events spread across three school buildings on the Austintown campus off South Raccoon Road.

Bennington, who also coached at Wooster and Highland high schools, spent most of his time Saturday traveling between the venues, checking with judges and other tournament officials as well as handing out medals to the participants.

"Coming out of COVID, we held last year's event at Wooster, so we are excited to be visiting the Youngstown district and they have been gracious hosts to this event," Bennington said.

Austintown Schools Superintendent Dave Cappuzzello was happy to provide the venue for the statewide competition.

"Speech and debate has a rich history in the Austintown community," Cappuzzello stated in his welcome that was printed in the program. "The event truly challenges creative and critcal thinking skills while promoting leadership, which we are happy to foster through this tournament."

This is Austintown's first chance to host the tournament since 1995, Dutton said, while the last Youngstown District school to host the state tournament was co-hosted by Canfield High School and Boardman High School in 2015.

Paul Moffitt, outgoing executive director, said this year's theme "TikTalk" celebrates the power of personal expression. "And who better to promote this power than the best high school speakers and debaters in the state?" Moffitt said.

Schools in the Youngstown district bringing students to Fitch this weekend for competition, in addition to host Austintown Fitch, included Youngstown Mooney and Ursuline, Warren JFK, Canfield, Boardman, Poland, South Range, Howland, Niles McKinley, Liberty, Crestview, Columbiana and Salem.

Mooney coach Vince Taddei said he was thrilled that the Mahoning Valley could play host to this tournament, noting that 11 out of his 14 students competed this weekend.

The students did their thing behind closed doors in front of only judges for the preliminary rounds. Beginning with the semifinal rounds, several other observers were allowed in. "Most times parents don't want to be there because they can be a distraction, " Bennington said.

COMING HOME

Two speech and debate coaches from Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School were more than familiar with the venue. Both Kaylyn Gamertsfelder Bass and Brittany Lowe Wilhelm are 2010 graduates of Fitch, and they brought 11 students to this year's state finals at their alma mater.

"It seemed surreal walking through those doors and seeing old teachers who are now colleagues," said Bass, who convinced her longtime friend Wilhelm to help her coach at Brecksville just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

"We've been friends for 18 years and we got really close doing speech and debate together," said Wilhelm, who now practices corporate law in the Cleveland firm of Jones and Day.

Both women credit their coaches at Fitch, including John Mitzuko. Bass, who now teaches an associate program for Lutheran Metro Ministry, said she excelled in impromptu speaking, "something they don't do anymore" and once finished as a state semifinalist.

Bass was honored by her peers by being nominated for the Linda Miller Award at the torunament, which honors a coach who has served less than five years.

"It is an honor, especially to get it here," she said.