Apple Valley Sophomore Wins National Speech Title

For those who aren't familiar with high school speech and debate, Apple Valley High School speech coach Joe Wycoff puts into perspective what sophomore Nader Helmy did in June.

“Winning the national championship is kind of like getting a 36 on the ACT,” Wycoff said.

Helmy, who will be a junior in the fall, took the top spot in the original oratory competition at the Forensic League National Speech and Debate Tournament in Dallas earlier this month. More than 3,000 students from 950 different schools nationwide competed at this year’s tournament.

"I was in disbelief, because basically the pinnacle of anyone’s career is that they can win a national championship," Helmy said. “My biggest dream, the thing I thought I would be working forever to achieve, to have that recognized and be able to soak it all in … I just wanted to enjoy every second of it.”

Helmy’s approximately 10-minute speech, which he gave in front of a crowd around 2,000 spectators and 15 judges during the final round of the competition, focused on the word 'old' and how society perceives things that are old in a negative light.

"Everything that is old, we kind of see it as not usable," he said. "We’ve become a culture that relies more on staying relevant and staying new."

Helmy joined the high school's speech team at the beginning of his freshman year, and said he succeeded for someone at the novice level.

“To me, the idea that through your words you can actually influence another person, I think that’s kind of a cool concept," he said.

He tried out and earned a spot on the varsity team for his sophomore year. That’s when his speech made its journey to become national championship quality.

“They are practicing for months and months and months,” coach Pam Wycoff said. “It’s not like they whip up a speech and then they give it. There’s a lot of fine-tuning that goes on.”

Helmy isn’t the first Apple Valley student to find success at the national level. Apple Valley sent nine students to the tournament this year, and Pam Wycoff estimated the school sends somewhere between eight to 12 students to the national tournament each year.

This year, Apple Valley debaters John Granlund and Luke Stuttgen finished sixth and 11th, respectively, in the national Lincoln-Douglas debate competition.

But even with the Wycoffs' more than 50 years combined speech and debate coaching experience, Pam said she has never had a sophomore win a national championship.

"The part that made us the happiest was that his actual performance in the final round was all he or we could have hope for," she said of Helmy’s final performance. "He really shared his message and did a great job."

Pam Wycoff said it's important to have students who are talented and are willing to put in the hard work to be successful, but it always helps to have coaches and students who have been there before.

“When somebody else opens the door in front of you,” she said, “it’s a little bit easier to step through it.”

Other participants in the national competition were:

Apple Valley High School

• Bryan Porter—top 20, Dramatic Interpretation

• Kirby Hermansen—top 14, Expository Speaking

• Rhett Gopaul, Rand Silver, Hogan McDonald—Congress entries in national competition

• John Slater—Lincoln-Douglas entry in national competition

Eastview High School—one of eight schools nationally to be named a School of Excellence in speech and debate

• Ashesh Rambachan—second place, International Extemporaneous Speaking
• Adithya Balaji—top 30, United States Extemporaneous Speaking
• Alex Black—top 30, Humorous
• Karina Devine and Tim Jurney—top 60, Duo
• Averi Haugesag and Kiki Laing—top 60, Duo
• Svati Pazhyanur—top 60, United State Extemporaneous Speaking
• Joyee Chin—top 60, Oratory
• Katie Baldwin and Maddie Johnson—top 57, Public Forum Debate
• Steven Albers and Allie Johnson—top 82, Public Forum Debate

"I’m really proud that we had so many students do well," Eastview’s head debate and speech coach Todd Hering said in a news release. "It takes a great deal of dedication to prepare for nationals and our students put in the time and effort to be successful."