West Hardin has a history of state champions, and for her varsity,  Sandra Peek has no intention of slowing down.

“…they did okay, I would like to see them up their preparation level and their competitiveness as the year goes on,” Speech and Theatre Director Sandra Peek said.

However, the real story here is the novice team, as this was a teaching tournament designed to be an introduction to Student Congress. Two novices placed, Kimberlann Gilley, who got 3rd, and Kade Brackin, who got 1st.

“They did really well, especially my novices. I was super impressed with their abilities, especially under the pressure of, for some of them, their very first tournament,” Peek said.

 A huge part of the school’s success in speech and debate is the work students put forward into bettering themselves.

“… the average kid will prepare 5-6 hours outside of class time in order to be completely prepared,” Peek said.

Another huge part of why the speech team has excelled has been Peek’s coaching and members of the team seem to agree.

“I love her! She is amazing and she is helping me through so much! I think I’m in 5 UIL events, and she is helping me every step of the way,” Freshman Kimberlann Gilley said.

Peek has set her sights high for this year, and she has plans for her team to do very well.

“My goal is to get as many of them as possible qualified for state, and 2 or 3 of them qualified for nationals.”