The war of words in Kalispell begins Saturday.

Glacier High School and Flathead High School speech teams will compete in their first tournament of the season, the Kalispell Classic, that will be conducted at both schools.

Both teams are bracing for an exciting year.

Glacier hopes to clinch its fifth consecutive Class AA state title. The team is priming itself for another great season, according to Glacier Head Coach Greg Adkins. He said while the team had some top competitors graduate and a couple of coaches retire,  there are many promising students moving up in the squad.

“We have some growing pains at the start of the year,” Adkins said. “Ultimately we want to be the team to beat.”

Flathead finished second at state last season. Flathead Head Coach Shannon O’Donnell is looking toward a nail-biting season that comes down to the wire at state.

“My goal is to stay in head-to-head competition with Glacier,” O’Donnell said. “I really want to be poised to go. I would love to see it [the state title] go to us.”

The team has an extra boost of pride this year because 2014-15 marks the centennial of the first state championship won by a Flathead speech and debate team. Flathead hopes to add to the school’s legacy of 21 state championships —the last one in 2010.

“The one thing Flathead has is tradition — something we can hold onto and be proud of,” O’Donnell said. “For us to be able to contribute to that legacy is awesome whether we win or not.”

It’s no surprise which team the head coaches see as their biggest competition.

“Without a doubt Flathead is the team to beat this year,” Adkins said.

“Glacier, that’s obvious,” O’Donnell said.

Bozeman also remains a tough competitor according to the Kalispell coaches. Bozeman dominated meets in the 2013-14 regular season but finished third at state.

“Bozeman was a strong young team last year,” Adkins said.

One hundred fifty Glacier students and 135 Flathead students plan to talk their way through the speech and debate season.

Both schools are bringing back accomplished teams with 98 veterans on the Glacier team and 80 on the Flathead team.

Several returning competitors are state champions and national qualifiers. Glacier’s Memorized Public Address state champion Harrison Kauffman returns to defend his title.

Glacier’s returning national qualifiers include Ruben Castren, Public Forum Debate; Noah Hill, Public Forum Debate; Josie Jolly, Legislative Debate; Grant Germann, Legislative Debate; and Abby Van Allen, Duo Interpretation, along with two-time qualifier Ben Habel in Duo Interpretation and Memorized Public Address.

Flathead has two returning state champions: Ethan Hall in Humorous Interpretation and Sarah Ward in Extemporaneous Speaking and Impromptu Speaking.

Six of Flathead’s national qualifiers are back: two-time qualifying Duo Interpretation team Wyatt Dykhuizen and Parker Kouns, Alaina Mothershead in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Sophia Skwarchuk in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Maija Hadwin in Original Oratory and Memorized Public Address. National qualifier Wyatt McGillen in Extemporaneous and Impromptu reached the top 60 among 253 competitors at nationals.

O’Donnell said her team’s strengths are Impromptu Speaking and Extemporaneous Speaking.

“Those are definitely our strongest events,” O’Donnell said. “Between Eli Cornell, Sarah Ward and Wyatt McGillen, we have a really strong core to that squad.

The first round of Saturday’s tournament featuring 19 teams begins at 8 a.m. Speech events will be held at Flathead with debate events at Glacier.

An awards assembly will at 7:30 p.m. in the Glacier High School Performance Hall. The next home tournament in Kalispell will be western regionals in December.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.