Blue Springs School District

Both Blue Springs South and Blue Springs High Schools each had championship efforts at the 2025 Missouri State Speech and Debate Tournament.

Two state winners paced the Jaguars to the overall Speech Sweepstakes First Place Award as Class 2 State Speech Champions.

Jaguar Marin Heide won the state title in Original Oratory and Colby Garcia won the Storytelling state title. Also placing in the top four for BSSHS were: Audrey Legg - second place in Dramatic Interpretation; Garrett Flack - third place in Lincoln-Douglas Debate; Lilly Nutter - third place in Humorous Interpretation; and the team of Nutter and Hayden Robertson took fourth place in Duo Interpretation.

BSHS’s Deidra Pierre won the state title in Dramatic Interpretation to lead the Wildcats. Journiee Hawthorne placed second in Poetry; Lilly Noah placed second in storytelling and fourth in Humorous Interpretation; and Abigail Moore placed fourth in Prose.

Pierre was also named a National Speech and Debate Association 2024-2025 Academic All-American.

Congratulations to these students.