AJSHS speech team hosting its very first meet Saturday

It's the talk of the town, or it should be: the Anaconda Junior/Senior High School Speech and Drama team is ready for their first meet of the 2025-2026 season of "verbal athletics," and it'll be right here at home as the program is set to host its first-ever home meet on Saturday, Oct. 25 at AJSHS. 

A total of 101 competitors from 11 schools, including 10 from Anaconda, will be in the Smelter City for a host of events, said Maggie Swanson, who together with fellow teacher Anne Calhoun coaches the AJSHS Speech and Drama team.

The AJSHS students competing this weekend are Blakelyn Cline, Eva Murray and Brenna Carney, who are all doing Spontaneous Oral Interpretation; Royal Mace and Loretta LaSalle are both performing in Mime; Ada Calhoun, Megumi Heuberger and Alli Mari are all doing Humorous Oral Interpretation; and Kylie Clark and Kyson Moore are both doing Dramatic Oral Interpretation, Swanson said. She added that while another team member, Amelia Krakowka, won’t be competing this week, she will compete in Memorized Public Address this season, and Bella Thompson is also on the team.

"Five students are new to our team this year," Swanson said. "The team has been practicing every day since October 1st, and we look forward to seeing all their hard work pay off. Our next meet will be in Stevensville on the 15th of November."

Swanson expressed her gratitude to the community of Anaconda, saying the community "has really shown up to help out."

"We've had so many people volunteer to help judge or volunteer in other ways that we've had to turn people away," she said. "It really is exciting to see all the support we have for our team and the Speech and Debate sport (verbal athletics) as a whole."

Anaconda is co-hosting the meet with Powell County High School. 

"Their coach, Sean McConnaha, has been crucial in helping get things together," Swanson said. 

The meet is set to start at 8 a.m. Saturday and will run throughout the day.