By: Joe Chamberlin ’16

The annual Seattle Prep Grade School Speech Tournament is a tradition that goes back more than thirty years, and is a great opportunity for middle school students in the area to showcase their talent and be exposed to the Seattle Prep campus.

The tournament draws mainly from private, Catholic grade schools in the Seattle area, but schools also come from as far away as eastern Washington and British Columbia. The tournament lasts all day Saturday January 18th, and involves sixth, seventh, and eighth graders from various schools.

The students perform speeches which are judged and then scored. The tournament has two divisions; juniors and seniors, with the juniors being sixth and seventh graders and the seniors being eighth graders. Participants may choose to write one or two speeches, and each participant performs their one or two speeches twice during the day, in round one or two. The styles of the speeches are chosen from a variety of categories, including interpretive reading, oratory, expository, impromptu, editorial commentary, children’s storybook, and duo interpretive reading.

The wide range of styles allows for each student to create a unique performance which can be funny, informative, persuasive and more. Each round consists of three events, and each event is focused on two or three of the speech categories. The participants give their speech or speeches one time through in round one, and then again in round two. The speeches are evaluated by adult judges provided by the schools, and they use a rubric to evaluate the speeches. The students’ diction, persuasiveness, memorization, and posture are scored, to name only a few of the areas judged. These scores help to determine the standouts in the competition. For both divisions, there are third, second, and first place winners in all of the categories of speeches, and there is also a winning school.

In addition to this, there is an overall winner in the senior division who is awarded a scholarship to Seattle Prep. For many current Prep students who participated in speech in grade school, the Speech Tournament was a way for them to see the campus and experience the environment and school atmosphere even before visits in seventh and eighth grade. Sophomore Alex Martin said “Coming to the speech tournament exposed me to the campus…the competition reinforced my desire to come to Prep.”

The Seattle Prep Grade School Speech Tournament is an event that not only brings together various schools to showcase the talent of young students, but it is also a way to expose them to the Prep culture of academic activity and community.