When walking into one of the six science classrooms at Cannon Falls Area High School, an observer can expect to see experiments of some sort – dissections, balloons being blown up, or pop cans imploding. Not seven or eight people sitting in the desks, watching someone give a speech on anything from foreign policy to fairy tales. On March 22 and March 29 however, that’s exactly what happened all over CFHS as the Cannon Speech team held its subsection competition there. As high school speech competitors of all kinds know, subsections marks the beginning of a very important time in any competition year – the battle to get to the state tournament.

“[Subsections] may be a smaller tournament, but there’s so many details that go into it that make it more difficult to host,” said Speech Coach Cal Vandehoef when asked about hosting the tournament for the first time.

The speech tournament was an interesting experience for all involved, as CFHS was adjusted to fit the needs of the tournament; the art room tables covered for the judges to eat walking tacos; classrooms shifted and cleaned up to allow the competitors to speak; the library filled with kids waiting to prepare their speeches; and everywhere one looked in the hallway, people talking to walls. In some instances their arms would be flailing, or quickly popping from character to character, and in others flipping the visuals for their speech.

The many preparations paid off, as thirty-four Cannon Falls speech team members, ten of them being event champions, will move on to sections in Byron this Saturday, April 5. Vandehoef commented, “While we’ve possibly had more people go to sections in the past, it’s never been so across the top, with so many event champions and second places that we’re sending a very quality team

This week will be chock full of team members practicing for sections and hoping to qualify for the State tournament next Saturday, April 12.

Before that, however, the team decided to highlight all of its members for one last showcase at the Cannon Falls Speech Team Community Night on March 31. Those who were ineligible to compete at subsections or sections – such as the sixth graders, who are prohibited from participating by Minnesota State High School League rules – got to perform once more for friends and family. For some, the season is over until next winter. But for others, as the next stages of competition appear on the horizon, their war rages on.