Anatomy of a speech tournament

The halls are quiet. A typical Saturday on school grounds. No one there to disturb the peace, until the Speech team arrives. The team starts every tournament off with a crucial part of their successful season, Warm-ups. “I think the warm-ups are really fun and they work to get the team excited and ready for the days,” says freshman and three time veteran speechie, Emma Conway. “I think it woul...

To a normal person, strolling into school on a Saturday morning at about 8 o’clock, it would be a strange sight to see hordes of people talking to walls, but for a speechie, it’s a normal Saturday. Once speech season starts, each Saturday consists of a new invitational tournament, and when there are about 300 people competing, there’s no time to gather an audience to practice in front of, the on...

Alone. Quiet. Calm. It seems ironic that a bunch of speech kids can be thrown in a room together and not say a word for the longest time - until first round is posted. The draw room is a special place for a different style of speech categories where the speakers don’t know what they're performing until thirty minutes before performance. The draw room houses three of the thirteen categories of speech ...

A good speech is like a pencil; it always has a point to it. The 2016-2017 speech team has fourteen new middle school speech members. Returning speechies are always very welcoming to the new members and are helpful by making them feel comfortable. Some people think writing a speech is the hardest part, while others dread presenting their speech to an audience. The team continues to grow each year by ...

The speech season has officially begun as of February 4th, and the chattering madness of the speechies fills the halls once again. For many not in speech, the activity is often perceived as scary, as many people believe that when you are speaking, you are speaking in front of huge crowds. However, that is nowhere near the truth. Every Saturday when the team goes to anywhere from Northfield to Owatonna, th...

The tab room is the mission control center for speech. However, the tournament would not run as smoothly without the magical website Speechwire. Everything is organized through Speechwire, the results, room assignments, speaking times, and even past results. After each round, all of the judges bring their ballots and results to the tab room so that the scores can be recorded. Two people at least w...