“Once upon a time, in a kingdom where dragons were your pets and little boys got baked into pies all too often,” Tucker Nobach, a seventh grader, performs in the final round of subsections. As a middle schooler in Speech, Tucker performs speeches at other schools. “Whenever I perform, it’s like I go into autopilot. I just go with the flow, especially since I am in an interpretation category.”
Currently, the Cannon Falls Speech team is made up of twenty-three people. Two of which are coaches, the other twenty-one being speakers. As of right now, there are four middle schoolers on the Cannon Falls Speech team. There are three seventh graders and one eighth grader. These individuals are Tucker Nobach, Lola Winchell, Isla Harrison in seventh grade, and Anya Nygaard in eighth grade. Recently, the Speech team competed at sections. To make it to sections, a competitor must make it into the top six performers in their category at subsections. Tucker, Isla, and Anya were able to make it into the top six in their respective categories, allowing them to compete at sections.
Seventh grader Tucker Nobach has been in Speech for two years now. Nobach has been in the category of storytelling throughout his entire Speech career. Nobach said his favorite part of storytelling is “ That I can make up my story how I want it to be because there aren’t many rules.” Nobach also states, “My favorite memory of Speech is getting first place in varsity.” Seventh grader Isla Harrison just completed her first year of Speech. Harrison says when she is giving a speech, “I just think about doing the best I can.” She states, “My favorite part of my category, Extemporaneous Reading or ER for short, is the depth of the texts we read.”
Most people in the world struggle with public speaking, and these speakers can tackle one of the world’s greatest fears. They have worked hard all year to be able to compete at subsections. Nobach, Harrison, and Nygarrd all made it to the final round in subsections. Once learning they made it to finals, Harrison said, “I felt awesome to be able to go to sections as a middle schooler, and I am grateful for the experience.” Nobach said, “I was so happy, it felt like all of my hard work had paid off.”
Once making it to sections, all the middle schoolers competed in three rounds of prelims, and were then judged to see who would go to the finals. Two of the three middle schoolers made it to the final round. It was Nygaard and Nobach. They competed in finals and went to the award ceremony. To make it to state, a competitor must make it into the top three of their category. At the award ceremony, Nobach received fourth place and Nygaard received fifth place. Nobach thinks he has improved overall on “Just being more confident in my abilities.” Almost all of these middle schoolers will continue Speech next year and will be able to improve their abilities to hopefully go to state next year.
