Shelley High School makes speech history

This year’s top state high school speech team in Idaho for small division is the Shelley High School Russets, and the team also produced three individuals wins.

“Taking first in speech was kind of a capstone rewarding experience for the kids,” said speech and debate coach, Marcy Marcy Curr. “It’s very cool to have a state title and be the first team at Shelley to get a state title in state speech.”

The three people on the team didn’t anticipate winning.

“Didn’t see it coming at all,” said Isiah Long, a junior speech team member. “But then, at the point that two of my best friends got first in all of their events, I was freaking out.”

Seniors Gabriel Luis Gurrero and Gage Duffin both won their individual events. Guerrero got first in original oratory and Duffin came out on top in both informative speaking and oratorical analysis.

“As they were counting down all the names and I didn’t hear mine and as it drew closer to the first place, you hear ‘From Shelley High School, Gage Duffin,.’ It’s euphoric and it’s the last time I’ll ever be able to stand on that stage,” Duffin said. “It was really awesome.”

Although team divisions are scored and divided into small, medium or large teams, the individual events are all combined.

“When they went to compete, they were competing against kids from Eagle [High School,] Hillcrest [High School,] and Madison [High School,] and all of the 5-A schools,” said Curr.

With these wins, the two boys get to look forward to another adventure: the nationals.

“I’m pretty excited,” said Guerrero. “I’ve been working on my speech more and more, trying to get it ready.

My next goal has just been to go to nationals and I’m just really excited to get there.”

Mix that with graduation coming up, and it’s sure to be busy with the boys next month. It’s something, however, something that they wouldn’t change for the world.

The nationals will be in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on June 17-22.

Guerrero will continue his speech and debate journey next year as a “Talking Bronco” at Boise State University.