Flathead and Glacier high schools are gearing up to host the Kalispell Western Regional Invitational speech and debate tournament Friday and Saturday.

The tournament features the talent of approximately 600 students on 31 registered teams hailing from 17 different schools.

This is the largest invitational in the Western Division, according to tournament director Shannon O’Donnell. It is comparable in size to a Bozeman tournament in the Eastern Division.

“There will be some wonderful and exciting competitions between schools,” O’Donnell said.

This will be the final tournament Class C through Class AA will compete alongside each other this season.

Speech events will be held at Flathead. Debate and drama events will be held at Glacier.

The first round will begin at 3 p.m. Friday. Saturday’s first round begins at 8 a.m.

Final rounds Saturday are scheduled at 3:30 p.m. for speech events and 4 p.m. for debate events.

The awards ceremony to cap the tournament is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Flathead High School Auditorium.

About 307 judges are still needed for the two-day event. There will be roughly 500 to 600 people total who will judge 12 speech and debate events and six drama events.

No previous experience is required to be a judge.

Judges need to be 18 or older and not currently enrolled in high school. Each round lasts approximately 90 minutes. People may judge as many or as few rounds as they would like.

Register to judge online at www.kalispellspeechdebate.org.

“Judging speech and debate is a great experience,” judges coordinator Kyla Niva said. “These kids are very talented and knowledgeable.”

A judges clinic is at 6:30 p.m. today in the lecture room at Flathead to go over events and answer questions. Attendance is optional.

For more information about judging, contact Niva by calling 751-3574 at by email at [email protected].  

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at [email protected].