Great Falls Central speech and debate champions once again

John Kutzman might be Dairy Queen’s best customer in Great Falls.

And it’s not because he has a sweet tooth.

The Cascade County District Judge, who coaches the Great Falls Central High School speech and debate team along with local attorney Jason Holden, made a deal with his debaters a few years ago: if any of his Class C orators beat a AA competitor, he would have to buy them a DQ Blizzard every day for a week.

With the success Central saw against the highest competition in the state of Montana, that amounted to about $500 in gift cards.

“It was a funny joke in the first year I offered it,” Kutzman laughed. “And then last year and this year, it started to get pretty expensive. My wife is pretty annoyed with me with the amount of money I had to give out to these kids to be able to beat AA debaters.”

After facing some of the toughest competition from much larger schools throughout the speech and debate season, the Great Falls Central crew earned a Class C state championship last week in Manhattan. It was the program’s third state championship in five years, also taking a Class C crown in 2019 and Class B in 2020.

Central seniors Kylie Bickel and Aiden Holden paired up to win first place in Policy Debate, finishing 7-1 at the state meet. The tandem of junior Michael Faccenda and sophomore Helen Darlington took third in Policy Debate as Central unseated speech and debate powerhouse Gardiner, which had won 16 of the last 18 Class C championships.

The 2020 state championship team was quite special, Kutzman said, as the school had 15 placers to snap Missoula Loyola’s 36-year Class B winning streak. However, to reach the peak again in Class C with just four competitors on Central’s roster this year was also monumental.

“Now, enrollment (at Central) is much smaller (than 2020) and we fielded a much smaller team. It’s really gratifying to be able to win with the number of committed kids that we had,” Kutzman said.

In Classes B and C for speech and debate, debaters choose one event to compete in all season, with all four of Central’s landing on Policy Debate.

This year’s topic for the event was “The United States government should enhance its security cooperation with NATO in one or more of the following areas: artificial intelligence, biotech or cybersecurity.”

Competitors are given whether they are the “affirmative” or “negative” side of the topic going in. Those on the “negative” side have to be prepared to counter any argument the “affirmative” side throws out. Single events for policy debate average about an hour and 20 minutes in length.

“Great jazz improvisers have to be prepared in order to improvise,” Kutzman said. “So, you have to be prepared, but you have to be flexible and you have to be able to improvise and be able to be quick on your feet. The whole bottom line with policy debate is being able to be quick on your feet and adapt to rapidly changing circumstances because you cannot go in there with any preconceived notions.”

The Central students wrote a new case for the state meet for how the U.S. should partner with NATO ally Norway to use new drone technology – the autonomous underwater vehicle “Orca” – to stymie Russia’s AI submarine “Poseidon” in the North Sea.

“So, you’ve got high school kids in Montana understanding Russia and geopolitical issues and they just kind of become an expert in their field,” Holden said.

The speech and debate season runs from October to the state meet in late January, and Central this year was invited to AA competitions in Bozeman, Townsend, Helena, and at C.M. Russell High, winning two.

“What’s interesting about speech and debate, like Gardiner, they’re an institution in high school speech and debate,” Holden said. “They have these longtime coaches, they have a culture of putting together really large teams. Around the state, Bozeman – they just won the AA meet – they’re ranked 20th in the nation. So, speech and debate, although it doesn’t get a lot of play around here, there are certain communities that really get behind these competitive thinkers and speakers.

“I just think it’s really important thing for kids to remember that developing arguments and presenting yourself is a marketable skill.”

Added Kutzman: “When we get a chance to compete against (AA programs), it’s a David-and-Goliath scenario. This year we got to the point where we expected our kids to win more than half of the time.”

Seeing the senior duo of Bickel and Aiden Holden come out with an event championship – which also broke a tie with Gardiner for first place for the overall team title – was highly satisfying, Holden said.

“I think what was most impressive about Kylie and Aiden, is it’s very hard to go 7-1 at state because you’re competing against the best competitors,” Holden said. “And when the best was required of them, they really gave their best performances on Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. They peaked at the right time.”

Faccenda and Darlington were not only critical to the team’s success, Holden said, but have shown great maturity and leadership for the school despite being underclassmen.

“Michael and Helen really are leaders at Central,” Holden said. “They were selected to represent the school at the MHSA forum, and they are very sincere, they work very hard and they’re basically the hardest workers that John and I have had in a long time on our team. They’re just great teammates for Kylie and Aiden. We wouldn’t have won without Helen and Michael.”

Grady Higgins covers prep sports and more for the Tribune and can be reached at ghiggins@greatfallstribune.com.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Great Falls Central speech and debate champions once again