Original Oratory finals were at 8:00 am today. After the finalists spoke, the semi-finalists were honored. Aidan placed 13th overall out of approximately 250 entries in the event.

Between DI and DUO Finals, the NSDA held a ceremony honoring coaches. Mr. Honeyman received his 2nd Diamond award. This means he has earned over 3000 coaching points and has been a coach of record in the NSDA for at least 10 years. In reality, Mr. Honeyman has been coaching at Newton South for 19 years. We were happy to see him honored!

After round 2 of consolation events, we went out for a Jamba Juice Break.

Shira, James and Aidan just advanced to round 3 in their respective events.

Storytelling is down to 43 out of 255 original entries. Impromptu is down to 92 out of about 450.

Jason advanced to round 8 of Extemp Debate. The event started with 772 entries and is down to 53 now.

The mascot of Jordon High School is the "Beetdigger." For some reason, we all find it pretty silly!

This is what is posted on Wikipedia
Jordan High School students are known as Beetdiggers, as are the students at Brush, Colorado High School. This was due to the large areas surrounding the schools which were sugar beet fields. Up until about 1950, at harvest time, classes were usually cancelled during vacations of a week or two in October, which allowed students to assist with the harvest. Their mascot is "Digger Dan."

It has been a long and emotional day. Aidan got to semi-finals in his main event (Original Oratory) and our PFD team made it through round 11. Shira & Isabella advanced to round 3 in Poetry & Prose, respectively. James dropped out of Extemp Debate after three rounds, as well. But we still have a full day of competition ahead of us! Tomorrow morning, our team members will be doing the following:

Competing in Supplemental Events
Round 4 of Extemporaneous Debate: Winson & Jason

Competing in Consolation Events
Impromptu: Aidan & James
Storytelling: Shira & Rhea

Judging Middle School events:
Malcolm, Ben & Isabella