Students Compete at State Speech Competition

This past semester, speech team members prepared for the ten acts they performed at state.

Senior Ethan Smith joined speech this year after doing the musical because he wanted to participate in more drama. Leading up to state speech, his group practiced together from three to four hours a week during scheduled practices.

“We rehearsed twice a week for my group; we would run it over and over again,” said Smith.

Like many sports or clubs, speech is still trying to rebuild its team after losing many members due to covid. Coach Julene Pappan believes this year has felt the most normal since covid hit.

“We used to average around 60 kids and right now we are averaging around 50 kids, but I feel like we are bouncing back,” said Pappan.

Pappan first got involved in speech during high school as a student and has now been coaching for over 30 years.

“My favorite part is always just seeing kids have fun, they are doing something they get a lot of artistic freedom in and they get to have a good time,” said Pappan.

At state, acts can receive a score of one, two, three, or four. A four means you were disqualified due to violating the rules in some form. If an act receives a three or two it can no longer move on. Scoring a one is strived for as the act can move forward.

This year, the speech team was at state for around 12 hours, participating in the ten acts they put forward. eight of the ten acts received one, meaning they did very well. The speech team also took time during the day to watch and learn from other schools’ performances.

“It’s fun because you’re not competing against other schools, you’re competing against yourself, every single school and entry could get a one if it was worthy of a one. So that’s the nice part about it, you can enjoy other people’s performances,” said Pappan.