Bigfork hosts divisional speech meet on Saturday

Organizing and running a divisional speech, debate and drama meet might sound like a daunting task, but Bigfork head coach Charlie Appleby says the job isn’t overwhelming.

Bigfork High School hosts the Northern Class B-C Division Speech, Debate and Drama Tournament on Saturday. Nineteen teams will compete, but it’s still a relatively small meet, Appleby said.

“It’s only teams from the North division, and it’s only B or C schools. It’s the smallest meet I’ve ever held,” he said. “There are 19 teams, but some of them have one or two or four kids.”

With such small teams, Appleby is expecting the meet to run smoothly from a logistical standpoint. But small teams don’t mean light competition, he cautioned.

“Individually, every team has that kid, that star, who is going to go somewhere,” he said. “That team that sends one — that one kid’s really good.”

He said Bigfork has some “really good” competitors on its team as well.

Freshman Maddie Lorang has performed consistently well in Memorized Public Address, Appleby said.

“If she sticks with speech, I could say in two years she will be state champ for sure,” he said.

Zoe Gaiser and Amber McDaniel, both juniors, have done well this season, he said. Gaiser finished in fifth place in Humorous Oral Interpretation at last year’s Class B state tournament and McDaniel came in eighth in Serious Solo. The girls have placed in those events at meets all season.

Gwen Fratt, a senior, will give the team a boost in Humorous Solo.

“She was a divisional champ her freshman year, and she’s been pretty solid ever since,” Appleby said.

Another senior, Chris Gilley, who is new to drama this year, competes well in Pantomime, he said.

“He’s been placing pretty high every meet he goes to,” Appleby said.

The team had one disappointment when Jacob Sefcak, a two-time state champion in Humorous Duo, found out he couldn’t compete at divisionals. Sefcak has college auditions during the state tournament, so he won’t be at the divisional meet, Appleby said.

“We’re losing a solid, solid guy,” he said. “And his partner was left in the wind as well.”

That partner, senior James Vale, will compete in Humorous Solo instead of Humorous  Duo, Appleby said. Vale was Sefcak’s partner when they won last year’s state title.

“But it’s not the same,” Appleby said. “We’ve kind of been known as that Hum Duo-team school.”

Because most other Class B schools are too far away to compete against during the regular season, the divisional meet will be the first time Bigfork comes up against many of its rivals. Cut Bank and Malta should provide stiff competition, Appleby said.

“They’re kind of perennial favorites. They have big, solid teams with a lot of kids,” he said.

As a team, Bigfork needs to beat only Class B schools. But individuals will need to defeat competitors from B and C schools. That makes comparatively large squads from Simms and Great Falls Central teams to watch, Appleby said.

“They will give us trouble as well,” he said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.