Speaking For Success
Serena Mueller
Feature Editor
Every Monday, the speech team meets right after school and spends its evening writing and practicing.
Every Saturday, speech team members travel for tournaments and stay all day to perform.
Sports take some dedication, but the dedication that athletes give is a little different from that of Waverly High School’s speech team members.
Speech teacher and head speech coach Erin Konecky sponsors the speech team, and knows the difficulty and commitment that it takes for an activity like hers.
“It’s asking a kid to give up nine Saturdays and lots of time outside of school - that’s commitment,” Konecky said. “It’s gotta be the right kid.”
Konecky knows the struggle, as she’s had quite the history with speaking herself.
“In high school, I had a teacher that I really liked and respected, and he told my mom that I would be really good at it,” Konecky said. “I went to the meeting and saw success right away when I got a medal at my first tournament. It helped that there were cute boys.”
She competed in high school, continued with it when she attended college at Doane and was then their assistant coach for four years. Her first teaching job was at a small school, where she also coached, until she moved to Waverly and assistant-coached alongside Blake Tobey, who taught and coached speech at the time. The two swapped positions when Konecky moved to speech and Tobey moved to theater.
Students’ reasons for joining the group vary, from knowing their potential or wanting to prepare themselves for speaking in the future.
“During club week, they came to the middle school and kind of showed us what speech team was,” freshman Nathan Becker said. “I knew I was a good speaker, so I wanted to join; I thought it’d be fun.”
Some dreams and goals are even more motivation to get some extra experience.
“Since I aspire to one day be the president, I figure that I should work on my speaking, so I thought, ‘Hey, why not join speech team?’” sophomore Tanner “Tex” Lemrick said.
Overall, the members of this dedicated group can agree that the toughest part of the whole process is memorization.
“Hands down, memorizing is the toughest part,” freshman Grace Ellis said.
That step of the process can vary in difficulty with the different types of speeches that students can choose from.
In speech class, students learn the basics of platform events. On speech team, there are three categories of speeches to choose from: platform, interpretive and limited prep events.
Lemrick competes in the category of limited prep and doesn’t have material to memorize before the tournament.
“The process for my event includes drawing a sheet with three questions on it, then I choose the question I want to answer; I circle it, go to my computer or printed files and write a speech answering the chosen question,” Lemrick said. “Memorization isn’t required, but it does need to reach at least five minutes, and after that, there’s no time limit.”
Interpretive events include Oral Interpretation of Poetry, Serious Prose, Humorous Prose, Duet Acting and Oral Interpretation of Drama. As the name indicates, all of the options consist of a competitor interpreting different pieces of writing or theatrical material.
Becker chose to do something in humorous prose, and speaks as five different characters, adding an entirely different aspect to a speech.
“Trying to master all of my characters when I do humorous interpretation is definitely a harder part of it all,” Becker said. “It can get confusing.”
Even with the obstacles, Konecky and the members know that involvement offers more than a pretty picture on a resumé.
“There are so many benefits of it,” Konecky said. “It boosts confidence, it’s a social thing, they know how to talk to strangers. I think that’s a hard thing to do, but a very important thing.”
In the real world, whether it’s in getting a job or landing a nice offer, public speaking can come up as a requirement.
“It was an opportunity I knew I could take and use later in life,” freshman Dani Johnson said. “You might have to talk in front of people at some point, and you may have time to prepare or it could just be, ‘boom, here you are, you need to speak.’”
High school speech teams encourage growth in an area that people don’t consider all too much and, in the end, the benefits outweigh the complications.
Throughout the following semesters, many students hope to keep flourishing in their speaking. Waverly is hosting the last speech tournament prior to districts on March 7 and all students are invited to come and support their friends and peers.
Moreover, students interested in speaking, for any reason, are encouraged to pursue membership with the speech team.
