The Nate family kids-Michaila, Garrick, Maggie, and Griffin-all thrive on competition, but not the usual sibling rivalry. Michaila and Garrick joined the Speech and Debate Team for the Plymouth Schools at Lincoln Junior High and then went on to compete for four years at Plymouth High School. Maggie was on the Speech team at LJH and just completed her first year in speech at PHS while Griffin is still excelling in speech at LJH.
Garrick said, “The best part of competing with my siblings is simply the encouragement. When Michaila was competing, she always encouraged and mentored me. Likewise, I was able to do the same for Maggie this past year.” Michaila shared his views saying, “Each of my siblings made the choice to join the speech team. We all have very different personalities so we each chose our own events. The one thing we do have in common is that we are a very competitive bunch.”
Michaila (2013 graduate) and Garrick (2015 graduate) shared their appreciation for the support they have had from parents, Troy and Kristi Nate. Troy encouraged them to be in speech and always manages to be at award ceremonies and Kristi has been a junior high coach for the last four years. Michaila explained how her mother became a coach. She said, “Speech has become a bit of a family affair in my house over time. It all began when I started my time on the junior high speech team. We could never get enough judges, so I would always volunteer our mom to fill in. That led her to judging every single weekend of both Garrick and my junior high careers.” “Mr. McKenzie (PHS Head Speech and Debate Coach) mentioned that my mom should consider actually coaching the junior high team. My mom thought he was joking at first, but thought about it and eventually took him seriously enough to take over the Discussion, Impromptu, and Congressional Debate at LJH.” Kristi has had a Discussion champion at nearly every tournament, coached two national finalists as well as several national semi-finalists. Garrick said, “We are very proud of all she has accomplished. She is a great coach.”
Garrick explained that the events he competed in were time consuming. He said, “Congress in particular took a large amount of time to prepare for; however, I would say that my writing and analytical skills were dramatically improved by speech and debate. I become particularly strong in my literature and composition courses as a result of my improved skill set.” He added, “Speech and debate was never a hindrance to my performance in school as my school work always came first.” Garrick admits that he had difficulty speaking in front of people when he started. He said, “My biggest struggles as a speaker all stemmed from a lack of confidence. Through the support of my family, friends, and coaches, I became more confident. It took awhile for me to find that confidence, but it transformed my abilities as a speaker. Starting my junior year, I was much improved as I found the event in which I could be confident in myself and in my research.” Garrick will be entering Ball State this fall and plans to major in International Studies.
Michaila agreed saying, “All three of my event (Extemp, Congress and Impromptu) were a major asset to my classes in high school and continue to serve me extremely well in my jobs as well as my college classes.” She is currently majoring in Law and Public Policy at IU along with an Education Policy minor. She said, “I chose both my major and my minor largely due to my Extemp and Congressional Debate careers. It was during these events that I realized how much of a passion I have for policy and analyze the different impacts of policies and politics.”
Michaela and Garrick were both qualifiers to the IHSFA State Tournaments and the NFL National tournaments.
McKenzie believes that students participating on the Speech and Debate team profit. He said, “Like other co-curricular or extra-curricular programs, there is application to school and life skills. However, it is hard to find any program that has more direct application to the classroom – whether at the secondary or post-secondary level – than speech and debate. Whether it is developing skills with researching, writing, and revising or whether it is presentation skills; there are few activities that can provide what speech and debate can. “
“Furthermore, formal or informal preparation and presentation skills are skills that last a lifetime. While many of our students find competitive success, it is what I hear from graduates and their parents that is most gratifying. Quite frequently, I am contacted by a graduate or parent about a scholarship interview or a job interview or a presentation at work which went extremely well. There is the real victory that comes from our activity.”
Carol Anders Correspondent
