“This is like the least competitive thing in the world,” said speech student Idalia Anderson.
A senior at Owatonna High School, she’s participated in speech since seventh grade and plans to continue as she attends North Dakota State University in the fall. Over the years, she’s found speech has a way of uniting people.
“I can be friends with everyone here. We can compete against each other and still cheer each other on,” she added.
Competitive or not, the OHS speech team still has cause to celebrate. They recently wrapped up its season with the Class AA State Speech Tournament on April 20, where eight students competed.
Looking back, Coach Marcia Anderson said this season was “fabulous.”
“We had kids who placed at the various meets, we got Big 9 champs, we were runner-up team in our section, eight to state and two that placed,” said Anderson. “We had kids that made so much progress over the season as well. They started off hardly even being able to speak and then they just bloomed.”
Nora Johnson placed fifth statewide in Humorous Interpretation and Ayoub Farah took seventh place in Discussion.
“Going to state was really big for me. It was a nice way to close out the season,” said Johnson, a senior.
Johnson performed a show about a 1960s Tupperware party, playing mutliple characters.
“I got to use a lot of midwestern accents, which is something I’ve always liked doing and that I’ve heard a lot in my house over the years. There’s a smoking pregnant lady, and were just all these crazy characters that decide that they’re going to fight the housewife system, then end up just going back to being housewives again,” Johnson chuckled.
Sophomore Vitaly Bauer, a first-time speechie, also made it to state in Humorous Interpretation with “Jimmy vs. the Velvet Hammer,” portraying a nerdy character dealing with his alter-ego, “a ‘70s stud kind of guy” with different body language.
“This was such a fun year. I hope for even better years to come,” said Bauer.
Speech students compete in a variety of categories, ranging from Storytelling to Original Oratory.
Freshmen L McColley and Miles Bon tackled Duo Interpretation, in which two students performed “Eve and Adam: The Untold Story.” Both have participated in theater at OHS. McColley said the category is similar to drama, but with more “restrictions and rules” for performer to work around.
“I think we had a really good season,” said McColley. “I made a lot of friends in speech, that was one of my favorite things about it, was the friends I made. It was just overall a great experience. It was so much fun. I’m definitely doing it again next year.”
“It has improved my social circle significantly. Now it’s not just stuck at OHS, it’s to a whole bunch of other schools. I’ve met so many incredibly great people,” agreed Bon.
Multiple students noted how they’ve made friendships and improved their social lives by participating in speech.
Junior Audrey Hudock, who’s participated in speech since middle school, said she was “super introverted” when she joined the team. Hudock has since grown into one of the team’s biggest promoters. One of her proudest accomplishments this season was persuading a number of her friends to join.
Competing in Storytelling, Hudock gets a list of 15 stories at the beginning of the year to memorize, which she credits with improving her ability to absorb and retain information.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Junior Erin Baker chose Extemporaneous Reading because — although it requires a lot of quick thinking — it involves less prep time than other categories. Like many speech students, she juggles a number of other extracurricular commitments, including the robotics team and serving as student school board representative.
Her readings are randomly selected before her speech, and she has half an hour to prepare.
“It just makes my life easier because I don’t have to spend tons of time memorizing a speech, I just read a book. It’s mainly about being present in the moment and my facial expressions and my gestures,” said Baker.
Senior Jace Forcelle, Baker’s student colleague on the School Board, has competed in Original Oratory since freshman year, which has helped prepare him for the two careers he’s considering — Catholic priest or college professor.
“I love persuasive speech. I love the idea of being able to convince someone on a political, economic, social standpoint, so being able to use my voice in a persuasive way is ideal for me,” said Forcelle.
In choosing their categories, students have targeting a variety of skills they wish to strengthen.
Sophomore Cody McGaheran started in Humorous Interpretation, switching to Creative Expression because he wanted to use his writing skills more.
“Something I’ve noticed compared from last year to this year is I’ve had a lot more eye contact with people this year, and that made me feel good about how I was going about things,” said McGaheran.
Junior Emery Vick, who’s eying a career in law, competed in Great Speeches, which requires students to present excerpts of historical speeches and analyze their strengths. This year, she performed a speech on misogyny originally given by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, learning to condense big ideas into a concise presentation.
She also enjoys the camaraderie speech offers.
“Meets are always so fun. Everyone’s so supportive of each other. In our team, we’re so supportive but also the other teams are also really supportive,” said Vick.
Echoing Vick’s comments, Anderson said speech is a welcoming environment where students can find refuge and be themselves. She and her husband Mark have coached together for several years, and she’s loved having a part in something that’s impacted so many students.
“It’s so many of the things that high school is not. It’s not judgy. Nobody cares how you dress, who you love, any of that,” said Anderson.
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