The Plymouth High School Speech Team had a fantastic season placing, 2nd in the State AA Tournament and 3rd overall just losing to Munster and Fishers High Schools. Now, the awards keep rolling in for these talented students.
The PHS team that four seniors have been named National Speech and Debate Association Academic Hall of Fame selections. The four students include Jack Garner, son of Mr. and Mrs. Kurt Garner, Katy Smith daughter of Mrs. Susan Pasley and Mr. Randy Smith, Holly DeSalle, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John DeSalle, and Josie Edwards, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Tyson Edwards.
In order to qualify for this status team members must earn the Degree of Superior Distinction, they must have a GPA of 3.7 and they must have scored a minimum or a 27 on the ACT or a 1300 on the SAT.
Head coach David McKenzie, is proud of these new All-Americans who had a collective GPA of 3.96857. He said, “Each of these students were dedicated to their academics and their team. They effectively prioritized highly academic loads, taking many Advanced Placement and Dual credit courses, along with participation in the Speech and Debate Team and many other extra-curricular activities. The Academic All-American honor was well deserved.”
Garner and DeSalle are headed to Purdue University while Smith is going north to Hope College in Michigan and Edwards is headed south to Belmont University in Tennessee.
When asked about this honor for the four senior speech students, Principal James Condon said,“Plymouth High School is extremely proud of Jack, Katy, Holly, and Josie. Individually, they are outstanding students, tremendous role models, and recognized leaders on our high school Speech and Debate Team.”
Assistant Coach, Dan Tyree, who has been affiliated with the team for over 40 years believes that this is the most seniors at Plymouth to be recognized with this honor in one year. “Most classes have one or two Academic All-Americans, but I cannot remember having four in one year. He also noted that the senior class came just shy of having even more. The collective GPA for the 16 seniors on the team was 3.819. I’ve never seen one class with a collective GPA even close to that.” He noted.
All of the students except Holly DeSalle, will represent Plymouth High School at the National Tournament this summer in Dallas.
