Football, Volleyball, Basketball, and Baseball are all activities that many students can easily recognize and explain. However, one activity remains a mystery to those among the student body: Speech. By breaking down Speech into its basic components, it becomes much easier to understand what the activity is like and the type of work students put into their event.

Speech is an activity where individuals compete in one of 13 categories (Creative Expression, Discussion, Drama, Duo, Extemp. Reading, Extemp. Speaking, Great Speeches, Humor, Info, Original Oratory, Poetry, Prose, and Storytelling). Events are labeled as either Interp, where a person acts out a serious or humorous piece, or Public Speaking, where someone informs, persuades, or discusses a non-fiction topic. Students specialize in one of these categories and spend all season preparing for tournaments and perfecting their craft. The Cannon Falls Team, for example, begins practice in late November and finishes in mid-April.

While preparation is different for everyone, the team as a whole competes at several invitational tournaments. At a tournament, people present their speech three to four times in front of either one or three judges. These judges rank competitors on a scale of 1 to 5 and give feedback on what they did well and how to improve. Invitational tournaments are vital for the team since they provide excellent practices for the MSHSL tournaments: subsections, sections, and state. 

With so much nuance, speech as an extracurricular can be molded to different people’s interests. Even if acting isn’t someone’s forte, they can compete in a category like info and vice versa. It’s vital to understand how speech works since it’s a great opportunity for students to learn skills like researching, writing, and speaking that will help them throughout their lives. The Cannon Falls Speech season is nearing its end with the Subsection tournament, meaning it’s a bit too late for people to join. But, if some are interested, there is always next year!