Our basketball teams finished up December hosting Sheridan High School. The boys JV played a good game but came up short. Girls Varsity lost a thriller 30-28. They held Sheridan scoreless in the 3rd quarter and only allowed them to score 4 points in the 4th quarter. Unfortunately they could not overcome the first half deficit, but they did send a clear message to future opponents that their defense is tough! The Boys Varsity picked up an easy win in their game. All of the teams are improving tremendously. The rest of the season should be fun.
Speech/Debate
We Didn’t Start the Fire (Dec. 7). We attended our third varsity tournament, the Words Matter tournament, at Overland High School. Once again, our students competed with about 400 students from 30 schools, including all the top students from the most storied programs. Due to conflicts, only five students made it for this competition, including Simon Centola, Emmett Cumbler, Timothy Pauka, Sophia Bertsch, and Widget Taylor. It was Simon’s first ever debate tournament, and he managed a win against an experienced debater from a top school. Timothy and Emmett continued to climb the ranks, and Sophia and Widget turned in solid performances.
Winter Wonderland (Dec. 14). The Winter Wonderland tournament at CCHS is one of the largest of the year, with nearly 650 students competing including all the top teams. STEM fielded ten competitors, and while none made finals (extremely difficult for this tournament), our students continued to improve in their rankings and turn in outstanding performances. Emmett had the privilege of debating the #2 ranked debater in Colorado (a CCHS senior who has attended nationals 3 years in a row), and lost by only one point 29 to 28 out of a max score of 30.
January (State). Winter Wonderland marks the last tournament of the calendar year for STEM. In January we will enter two tournaments (Golden HS and East HS), then will compete at the 3A State Championships at Niwot HS in Longmont. We are cautiously optimistic that our strategy of going head to head with and learning from some of the best competitors in Colorado will result in strong performances at State.
Upshot. For a new, relatively small program like our own, it is rare that students do as well as ours have done. Many of the larger Colorado schools offer speech & debate classes for credit; several travel out of state and attend tournaments and workshops at some of the best programs in the country; and many programs have multiple specialized coaches with years of experience coaching students in particular events. But already many of our students are well known by top competitors from other schools, and I have had multiple offers from other coaches to hold joint practices. STEM is gradually gaining a reputation.
Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season.
Let’s Go Spartans!
The moment has finally arrived! STEM Spartan Athletics has an APP!
Click here to download the STEM Spartan App from the Google Play Store.
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Download the app to see current schedules, news, and receive team messages and DM’s from coaches and STEM Athletics.