As winter sports and activities draw near, Central’s Speech and Drama team prepares for its upcoming season. So far, the team has recruited a decent amount of new members, and is excited to start this new season with many unfamiliar faces and a fresh start.
For the upcoming season, Junior English teacher, Danielle Tate, will return for her tenth year as the Speech Head Coach. With over a decade of coaching experience at Central, she understands how special it is to be a part of Speech and Drama. She expresses, “We are a really close-knit group, and so it’s a safe space to develop a skill that’s life-long.”
Additionally, Ashley Nelson will return as the Drama Head Coach for her tenth year, and she has been coaching at Central as long as Mrs. Tate. Anna-Brit Story, who is an alumni of Billings Central and former competitor, will return as an assistant coach. Freshmen English teacher, Mr. Mack, will be a new coach added to the team. In his first year of coaching, Mr. Mack will help with the basic Speech events such as Informative, Original Oratory, and Memorized Public Address.
Speech and Drama is not just a team, but an experience that helps build lifelong skills in performing, debating, or speaking in front of others. Each event in Speech and Drama presents endless learning opportunities for students. Junior, Harper Pham, explains what debate has taught her as she explains, “For debate, it’s really good for me to understand that there’s always two sides of a problem and that there is never going to be one solution, you have to look at things from many different angles.” Speech and Drama also provides students with opportunities for development in their public speaking and performing skills, which creates a team where anyone can find an area where they feel most comfortable to develop those life-long skills.
Senior, Baxter Jensen, a former debater as a sophomore and now on his specializing in Speech, is thrilled to see a sizable number of underclassman join the team this year. Expressing his hopes for the new underclassman members, he says, “I like how much more attention Speech and Debate is getting for the younger classes. I hope that they stay with it and really get to enjoy it like how I did.” With the substantial number of new underclassman members, the Speech and Drama team looks forward to finding the best fit for every member and continue building their team for the 2025-2026 season.
With the first meet on November 8th in Miles City, Central Speech and Drama continues to invite and prepare students for the bright upcoming season with weekly practices and guidance for students to find their area of competition. Drama Captain, Willie Nelson; Speech Captain, Baxter Jensen; and Debate Captain, Alex Johnson, will lead Central’s new Speech and Drama team. Central is excited to see Speech and Drama carry out another great season, and they wish all members of the team the best of luck this season.
