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AHS braces for Grizzly Invite By Joe Zavala Jan 23, 2017 12:00 AM A A There won’t be any whistles or penalty boxes, scoreboards or roaring crowds, but there will be winners and losers, and the competition is expected to be fierce. Some of the best young minds in southern Oregon and northern California will descend upon Ashland Friday for the fourth annual Ashland Grizzly Invitational, an event hosted by Ashland High School’s massively successful speech and debate team which has won 17 OSAA Speech Championships, including the last two Class 5A titles. The tournament is scheduled to run from noon to 10 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. Saturday. By the end the competition over 100 trophies will be awarded in 14 categories such as Original Oratory, Impromptu and After Dinner Speaking. Additionally, AHS has partnered with Point of Information, an organization that specializes in parliamentary debate events, to offer a parliamentary debate-only tournament which will begin Saturday night and conclude Sunday evening. Ashland speech and debate teacher and adviser Gene Mandell said it’s a big weekend for AHS. “For us it’s important because we’re advertising that Ashland is here as an invitational for teams from California, Oregon and Washington," he said. "So the importance is, we want teams from other cities and states to come here. That’s why we’re providing things like housing. For example, we’re letting (competitors) stay with some of the residents in Ashland and our gymnasium.” Some of the students on hand for the tourney will also be staying in SOU dorms, Mandell added. The event is expected to draw to Ashland representatives from at least 20 high schools, including South and North Medford, Marshfield, South Eugene, Crater, Springfield and North Valley. Ashland High’s speech and debate team, which scored twice as many points as second-place South Albany in the 5A state championships last April, has played a key role in hosting the tournament, and senior Kleya Dhenin was put in charge of organizing it, a major undertaking that includes everything from ordering the trophies to purchasing T-shirts. Another student, Sienna Ross, is responsible for finding enough volunteers to judge the competitions. Last week, the Grizzlies delivered final presentations during the speech and debate class taught by Mandell. Some of the presentations had nothing to do with the tourney (one group reported on its outreach visit to The Siskiyou School), while others centered on making the event successful. Project partners Alex Dobry and Kip Parowski, for instance, produced a flyer that included a short description of each event which, they explained, could be handed out to judges and used as a sort of tourney cheat sheet. With only days left before showtime, Dhenin, who began planning the Ashland Grizzly Invitational in November, says she’s right on schedule. “It’s been a long process,” she said. “I’ve been working heavily on it recently. I wish more schools were registered to come.” Dhenin said 20 had registered at last count — not a bad number, but less than what she was hoping for. “I think (20) was originally what we set as our goal, so we achieved that, but I always want more,” she said. “There are some schools that aren’t coming from Eugene and stuff that have come in the past, and then there are schools that are coming from California that have never come before. It’s a more diverse group this year.” To increase awareness of the tournament, which has attracted anywhere from 15 to 20 schools in years past, Dhenin has done her best during Ashland road trips to publicize the Grizzly Invite. Traveling with the Grizzlies to the Willamette Winter Fest, she convinced Willamette High and Springfield High to sign up. At the National Parliamentary Debate Invitational in November, she reached out to Point of Information operator Jon Thorpe. Besides recognition and prestige, the tournament is also a source of revenue for Ashland’s speech and debate program, Dhenin said. Each school that participates pays a $40 participation fee in addition to entry fees, and those that don’t provide judges must cover that cost as well. Dhenin organized the Ashland Grand Prix in the fall for her senior project, but she decided to take on the Grizzly Invitational merely because she felt compelled to pitch in. The Grand Prix proved to be a great learning experience, she said, and for the Grizzly Invite she expects to come in under her $2,000 budget. “I haven’t gotten final numbers from the people getting food organized or supplies,” she said, “so we still have a couple of things that we need to get to.” Organizers are still looking for locals willing to volunteer as judges, she added. Those interested can let the school know by emailing [email protected] or [email protected]. The Ashland Grizzly Invitational is free and open to the public. Starting with the first round of Parliamentary at noon, the events will take place in various classrooms around campus. If overflow rooms are required, SOU’s Central Hall will be used. Mandell said his students take it very seriously, but that’s only part of the reason why Ashland High’s speech and debate trophy case outside the school library is stuffed with hardware going back to the Grizzlies’ first state title in 1990. “We have to remind them, there’s still tomorrow, there’s still family, there are other events you can go to during the year, and you’ve got other classes,” he said of the team’s dedication. “I always check all the kids — not just the ones that are in tournaments but all the kids — I look at their grades. The majority of them, 80 to 90 percent of them, are getting all A’s. They’re brilliant kids. They’re motivated by school. They’re the crème de la crème, the elite.” Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Zavala99.