Mount Pleasant High School juniors Reid Pinckard, Ryan Sharp, and Taryn Thurman have earned the National Speech and Debate Association’s Academic All-American award. Of the more than 141,000 student members of the Association, fewer than 1,000 students earn the Academic All-American Award every year. To date, only seven team members from MPHS have earned this prestigious honor.

The Academic All-American award recognizes students who have completed at least five semesters of high school, earned the degree of Superior Distinction in the National Speech and Debate Association Honor Society (a total of 750 or more merit points), have at least a 3.7 GPA, and have demonstrated outstanding character and leadership.

“Reid, Taryn and Ryan are all very deserving of this honor,” said MPHS Speech and Debate coach, Cody Morris. “All three of them have earned this award through hard work in competition and in the classroom. This is not an award they hand out to just anyone. Becoming an Academic All-American is extremely difficult. I am very proud to say we have three more Academic All-Americans in the program.”

Pinckard is the son of Ritchie and Amanda Pinckard. Sharp is the son of Robin and Janet Sharp. And Thurman is the daughter of Tris and Stephanie Thurman.

Photo left to right:
Reid Pinckard, Taryn Thurman, Coach Cody Morris, Ryan Sharp