Speech Team has succesful showing at Regional Tournament
February 9, 2010 • Bradley Wilson, Media Manager
Filed under Local News, News, Uncategorized
On Saturday, February 6th 2010, members of the RBHS speech team attended their regional tournament at Hinsdale Central High School in hopes of continuing on in their season, with ultimate hopes of having a strong showing at the statewide level.
As a team, the students took fourth place out of eleven teams. In addition to the team showing as a whole, RB had students as tournament champions in three individual events, as well as two third place finishes, and three fourth place finishes. The team had students competing in eleven of the fourteen speech categories.
Senior member Ariana Barreto, who competes in the events Poetry and Prose Reading, stated, “Regionals as a whole went really well. I was excited because I am a senior and it was my last regional event. It was awesome to see everyone competing and being successful. I felt I could have done a little better in my prose reading, but I put a ton of effort into my poetry event and it showed.”
Junior and first year Speech Team member Taylor Dalton said, “Regionals went really well in the sense that I made it to Sectionals, however it showed me the competition I am up against, and how I need to work harder to make my speech even better. I know I can do better, and would like to be able to make it and hopefully place at state.”
Dalton, who competes in the event Oratorical Declamation, an event in which you perform another person’s speech, has one of the more serious speeches this year. The Speech Dalton has performed this year was originally an essay written by Susan Klebold, a mother of one of the Columbine Shooters.
Speech Team coach and English teacher Kathleen Harsy was happy with the team’s performance, stating, “This is the most successful showing we’ve had at a Regional Tournament to date. We advanced students in eight categories this year as opposed to last year’s six. This is my fifth year coaching and I’ve really seen the progression of the speech team to where it is today. We have big goals for the students, and hope it will be a successful year.”
Senior Barreto, Senior Zeyne Guzeldereli, Junior Dalton, Sophomores Kevin Smaller and Sara Nie, and Freshman Stephanie Wolff, all scored high enough to move on to Sectionals, the next level of competition. These six students will in total complete in eight events at the Sectional level. The Sectional tournament will be held on Saturday, February 13th, at Downers Grove South High School.
Concerning her hopes about Sectionals, Barreto said, “I have high hopes for Sectionals and I would like to advance to state like I did last year. I will be practicing hard this whole week and it would be really nice to see all of my hard work pay off.”
The speech team had a new addition to their team this year, in the form of a coach. History teacher Mark Gouwens joined Harsy and fellow English teacher Tom Fuller in coaching the students. Both students and coaches are thrilled to have Gouwens on board, as Gouwens himself was a state champion in Original Comedy.
Harsy added, “Mr. Gouwens has been a huge addition and help to the team this year.”
Being a part of the speech team is not a light commitment. The students and their coaches put in many hours of preparation, and work very hard to perfect whatever speeches are being preformed. Some of the speech categories such as Original Comedy and Original Oratory, performed this year by Smaller and Wolff, even require the students to write their own speeches, and then work on the performance aspect of them.
Barreto commented, “Speech team is a huge commitment and a lot of work. Practices are before school and after school and we are rehearsing all of the time. On Saturdays we leave usually around five in the morning and are gone for twelve hours. Hours like those are rough in high heels.”
“In Speech, you really get what you put into it. If you work hard at your events, it pays off,” concluded Barreto.
Dalton concurred with Barreto, adding, “Although speech is a lot of work, it is very rewarding and a lot of fun!”
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Very good article. How did Ms. Barreto do at the finals
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