Mitchell High's Boehmer earns second place at prestigious Des Moines speech tournament

Dec. 14—MITCHELL — After nearly four years of participating in speech and debate at Mitchell High School, Shawn Boehmer has seen a lot of ups and downs with competitions.

But the performances he and a handful of his fellow teammates turned in last weekend at the Dowling Catholic Paradigm speech and debate competition in Des Moines, Iowa, were definitely among the "ups."

"It exceeded all my expectations, that's for sure," Boehmer told the Mitchell Republic in a recent interview. "It's a national circuit tournament, so we had competition from around the Midwest states, four or five states were there. Considering how I placed among people who are probably way more experienced or have way more rigorous programs than Mitchell does, I was very surprised and excited."

Boehmer brought home a second-place finish in extemporaneous speaking, where competitors are given a topic and 30 minutes to research, write, revise and then present their speech. It's an intense half-hour and presentation, and the topics he received covered a wide range of issues.

He developed a presentation on the housing market in Dubai when asked to prepare something on the Middle East. When it came to Latin America, he assembled a speech on the impact of the United States lifting sanctions against Venezuela. On the subject of the economy, he weighed the winners and losers in the recent Hollywood writers' strike. For politics, he looked at who was likely to have a better 2024 — Hakeem Jeffries or Mike Johnson.

His high finish at the competition qualified him for the National Tournament of Champions in extemporaneous speaking, which will take place in Evanston, Illinois, in May. He also qualified for national competition in the oratory category earlier this year at a tournament at Washington High School in Sioux Falls.

A senior at Mitchell High School who recently had an admissions interview with Harvard University, Boehmer got involved with speech and debate on advice from his mother.

"My mom always told me that I love to argue, and I'm a curious person and love knowledge and academics, so she thought debate would be great for me. And I gave in," Boehmer laughed.

Of the 15 Mitchell students who traveled to Des Moines, a total of four, including Boehmer, made at least the semi-final round in their competition category. The other three high placers among the group were Jordyn Wilson in informative speaking, Brooklyn Bailey in informative speaking and Abbi Schnabel in oratory.

Madi Ortmeier, speech and debate coach at Mitchell High School, said it was the first time her team had traveled to the prestigious tournament. Knowing the high level of competition her students would face, she braced them for the adversity, telling them that they would be competing against some of the most talented students in the country.

She needn't have been worried.

"It's a big and popular tournament because so many schools compete there and a lot of national finalists attend it," Ortmeier said. "They did so well. It was a really, really good weekend."

The Mitchell High School speech and debate team is seeing record numbers of participants this school year. Ortmeier estimates she has 41 students on her novice team, while a typical year may see about 20. For varsity, the team sports about 20 students, about double the usual roster size. She has taken as many as 50 students at a time to regional competitions so far this year.

She credits the growth to upperclassmen like Boehmer who promote the program to younger students in the district and also want to preserve the vitality of the program after they leave for college or the next phase in their life.

"Especially this year, the juniors and seniors have been driven to create and have a sustainable team after they leave. They are putting in the work and focusing on the legacy they want to leave," Ortmeier said. "Truly, those seniors do the work. They are amazing."

There are more tournaments to come after the holidays, and fundraising work to do. The program has set up a portal on its website to allow supporters to donate funds that will go toward program costs, including helping students like Boehmer attend the national tournaments he qualified for.

The teams have a goal of $10,000 and they've reached roughly the halfway point, Ortmeier said. More information can be found at

kernelspeechanddebate.weebly.com.

Ortmeier said doing well at tournaments and bringing home trophies are always nice accomplishments, but taking advantage of the learning opportunities provided through the program — and using them to make a difference — are some of the best rewards students can earn. She has enjoyed seeing her students embracing that philosophy.

"I tell them that getting trophies is great, but when you look back I want you to say you used your voice to talk about things that mattered. You have a voice and your words matter. You can make an impact," Ortmeier said.

Mitchell High School speech and debate team has done well at several competitions already this year. Included below are some of those results:

Aberdeen's Golden Eagle Tournament (Nov. 3-4)

* Shawn Boehmer — 2nd Place in Domestic Extemp

* Shawn Boehmer — 4th Place in Varsity Original Oratory

* Kambyl Wede — 5th Place in Varsity Original Oratory

* Isabella York — 6th Place in Varsity Original Oratory

* Camryn Swanstrom — 5th Place in International Extemp

Washington Warrior Tournament (Nov. 10)

* Noah Larson — 5th Place in Novice Extemp

* Shawn Boehmer — Champion in Domestic Extemp, earned national bid

* James Schelske — Champion in Novice Original Oratory

* Kenna Odell — 6th Place in Novice Original Oratory

* Lily Luque — 4th Place in Novice Original Oratory

* Shawn Boehmer — 2nd Place in Varsity Original Oratory, earned national bid

* Ashlyn Reynolds — 5th Place in Varsity Informative Speaking

* Brooklynn Bailey — 2nd Place in Varsity Informative Speaking

Roosevelt Sweetstakes Tournament (Nov. 11)

* Vitus Carpenter and Ben Johnson — Quarter Finalists in Novice Public Forum Debate

Mitchell's George McGovern Tournament (Nov. 17-18)

* Shawn Boehmer — 3rd Place in Domestic Extemp

* Lauren Douvier — 4th Place in Dramatic Interpretation

* James Schelske — 3rd Place in Novice Original Oratory

* Isabella York — 5th Place in Novice Original Oratory

* Sery Matias — 6th Place in Poetry Oral Interp

* Jordyn Wilson and Greyce Northrup — 2nd Place in Junior Varsity Public Forum Debate

Washington's Novice Debate Tournament (Nov. 28)

* Averi Gerfen and Kenna Odell — Undefeated in Public Forum Debate

* Cassidy Korzan and Aesia Aldridge — Undefeated in Public Forum Debate

* Mady Kirchmeyer and Lexi Diedrich — Debaters of Excellence

* Xavier Axsom — Debaters of Excellence

* Dante Thuringer and Jared Wenzel — Debaters of Excellence

Lennox Novice Speech Tournament (Online — Nov. 30)

* Vitus Carpenter — 3rd Place in Novice Original Oratory

Dowling Catholic Paradigm Tournament (Dec. 9-10)

* Shawn Boehmer — Finalist; 2nd Place in Extemporaneous Speaking, earned national bid

* Jordyn Wilson — Semi-finalist; 10th Place in Informative Speaking

* Brooklynn Bailey — Semi-finalist; 9th Place in Informative Speaking

* Abbi Schnabel — Semi-finalist; 13th Place in Original Oratory