Headrick tries for repeat win at national speech and debate competition

Northeast Ohio has a national champion who’s practiced hard to try to repeat as the winner of the National Speech and Debate Association’s humorous interpretation event. The NSDA national tournament is in Dallas on June 17-21.

Taylor Headrick, a class of 2019 graduate of Highland High School, is making her third appearance at nationals. This year’s competition piece comes from the play “Killer Halloween,” a spin-off from a horror movie, written by Dennis Snee.

Headrick finished first among 246 competitors at the 2018 NSDA national tournament. Her interpretation, “The Rocky Mountain Junction,” gave her a victory by more than 30 points.

She is one of nine competitors from Highland competing at nationals this year.

A few months ago, Headrick capped off her Ohio Speech & Debate Association competitive career by placing first at the OSDA state finals in humorous interpretation. It was her fourth time qualifying for state finals and her third appearance in the final round at states.

Highland finished in fifth place at the state finals, helped by Headrick’s first-place finish.

“Taylor is a talented character actress. She is able to individualize her characterizations at a level that I haven’t seen before as a coach,” said Suzette Burtoft, a Highland teacher in her 12th season as the speech and debate head coach. “Taylor’s facial expressions and vocalizations are two extremely powerful abilities that she is able to use within her pieces.”

Headrick’s path to being a speech champion began in elementary school.

“My mom [Tanya] is a very good singer, and when I was in fifth grade she started musicals at my elementary school,” she said. “I was cast as Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and I discovered that I loved performing. Later, at the eighth-grade talent show, I did a performance where I sang with my mouth closed, just for laughs.”

It was Headrick’s acting that attracted speech and debate coaches at Highland to her.

“I was a pirate in ‘Peter Pan’ at middle school, and I wanted that role to stand out. So I strutted my legs in a really exaggerated manner for the play,” she said. “My eighth-grade teacher, Mrs. April Eckman, told me that I needed to be in speech and debate.”

Slowly but steadily, Headrick improved.

“I was not all that good my freshman year, as I didn’t yet know what I was doing,” she said. “I placed fourth at one tournament that year, Laurel, and that was it.”

She learned by watching other performances.

“What motived me was that I started looking at those who were really good at states. I also began watching videos of other good humor performers,” Headrick said. “I put myself into the mindset that I was capable of being really good if I worked hard at it, and that’s that I did.”

Headrick also attributes family support to her success.

“My dad [Chris] is goofy with words, so he liked what I was doing,” Headrick said. “My siblings all encouraged me, which helped. Now they bug me if I’m not practicing.

“My mom is my inspiration,” she added. “She has four kids, she has a full-time job, she’s a speech coach, she directs musicals. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I think of her, because I’m really doing very little compared to my mom.”

In her sophomore year, Headrick discovered her talent for humor interpretation, placing fifth at state finals and 15^th at nationals. By junior year, Headrick figured out how to take the next steps to advance. It began with selecting a good play to provide her script for the humor competition.

“I went to playscripts [a play website], typed in a random word, such as pizza or cat, and then I’ll read a summary of the plays. If it seems interesting, I’ll read some more,” she explained. “The play I used my junior year, The Rocky Junction Rumor, came from this process.”

She placed second at state finals and advanced to the national finals in humor, which she won. She gave her finals speech, along with six other finalists, in front of about 2,500 spectators.

“I had never expected to be a finalist, much less a national champion,” Headrick said. “The adrenaline is unreal. You are so overwhelmed with excitement … it’s really awesome.”

Nine of the 15 humor judges ranked Headrick first, making her national champion. She won a $3,750 scholarship.

“Imagine that doing funny voices would get you a scholarship to college,” she said. “I never thought that colleges would be recruiting, but it happened. Western Kentucky said, ‘We want you on our team.’”

Submitted by John Kerezy, Revere High School Speech and Debate coach.

Featured image photo caption: Taylor Headrick’s facial expressions serve her well at the National Speech and Debate Association’s humorous interpretation event. Photo by John Kerezy