Alexandria City High School runs over 15 official student teams, ranging from sports to academics. Among the variety of activities is the speech team where students develop skills in public speaking, communication and critical thinking. The school administration claims they give equitable attention and resources to each activity, however, Speech Team Captain Jada Ashun and other members feel the team often lacks recognition and support despite continuously winning awards.

“We are a sports team, even though no one seems to believe that,” said Ashun. Ashun also said that the speech team has never been provided a coach by the school. “The last time there was a coach, it was a parent and the school refused to pay them,” she said. “They give us the bare minimum … and then they kind of just push us to the side.”

According to the head of the athletics department Felix Trammell, ACHS is actively working on providing a coach for the speech team, but due to the number of activities happening at any one time, the athletics department has struggled to staff it.

Ashun, however, believes that the speech team not having a coach is due to lack of administrative effort rather than inability to staff the team. “When you look at the other districts, one of the schools that we compete against in our district, they have six coaches… most schools have at least two,” said Ashun. “We’re not even asking for two. We’re asking for one.”

According to Ashun, the push for a coach has been a longstanding struggle for the speech team going back multiple years.

On the weekend of Feb. 6th, the speech team competed in the University of Pennsylvania Liberty Bell Classic. This competition is an invitational event for high school speech and debate, with competitors who place high enough being eligible to receive a bid. Competitors who earn two bids are eligible for the J.W. Patterson Tournament of Champions, one of the most prestigious high school speech tournaments.

Ashun proposed the Pennsylvania trip to Trammell two months prior to the Liberty Bell Classic. “I laid a few things out on the table,” she said. “We would not be paying for transportation, we would not be paying for judges … and on top of that we would need the school to pay for registration.”

Ashun continued by saying that she visited the athletics office on a daily basis to ensure that everything was finalized. However, by Monday Feb. 2nd, 4 days before the competition, the athletics department was yet to pay registration which caused an $800 fine and was also yet to find any judges.

“That’s the biggest issue,” said Ashun. “For every five entries you need one judge,” She continued by saying that the team’s sponsor sent Ashun an email from the Liberty Bell Classic stating that if they had not found a judge by 8 p.m. Feb. 2nd, the team would have to drop half of their 10 students from the competition despite already only allowing half the 22 member team to go.

“Keep in mind that the students raised $6,000 to go on this trip,” said Ashun. “So now I have to compile a list with my vice president. I’m like, ‘okay, we have to figure out who we’re going to drop.”

According to Trammell, assisting with transportation was not the problem and the athletic department was able to help with that. Finding adult volunteers to accompany student teams is where the school struggles the most. “You’re asking adults to volunteer time which is very hard to do,” he said. “So we were able to secure judges for local events but we were unable to secure adults to travel to Pennsylvania for that tournament.”

When asked how the athletics department could better support the speech team in the future, Trammell said, “Probably just consistent communication on all fronts, coming from the sponsor and the competitors to the athletic department.”

According to Ashun, King Street Campus Principal Ashley Carter Sinclair and Executive Principal Lance Harrell were a major help in the speech team’s endeavors. “They got [the speech team] a judge, they listened to what I had to say … and they got the job done,” she said. I know there are administrators who care.”

Despite a complicated road leading up to it, the Speech team was successful at the Liberty Bell Classic competition. Ashun won the championship title in the Declamation category, with sophomore Hope Keber making it to the semifinals in Declamation as well. These awards bring them one step closer to the Tournament of Champions.

“The adults sort of let them down in this event, but they were able to compete and do well at the competition,” said Trammell.

While the Liberty Bell Classic is the most recent example of the speech team enduring hardship, they have been fighting for recognition for several years. The VHSL Speech State Championships happening at the end of March is the next major competition.

“I just feel like, as a sport, there’s just no care for speech and debate and that’s really unfortunate,” said Ashun. “I think that this sport is so important to give students an outlet…It’s quite literally one of the most diverse sports, but the school just does not seem to recognize that.”