Five members of the speech team went to sectionals on Feb. 11—two of whom are first-year speech team members.
“We have a lot of first time qualifiers this year,” speech team coach Samantha Kukuk said. “Maggie Proulx is a freshman, so this is her first year on the team, along with Sabrina Rodriguez.”
Being a first-year member of the speech team and qualifying for sectionals, particularly as a freshman, presented a challenge.
“There were a lot of seniors at sectionals, which was scary because I’m a freshman,” Maggie Proulx, freshman, said. “It’s sorta like having to climb your way up.”
Although the team did not place in sectionals, they still made improvements from past seasons and established a base for their upcoming season.
“We had a really good season this year, because last year we were a team of nine, and we only had one person make it to sectionals,” Wren Ferguson, junior, said. “This year, we’re a team of 16 and we had five people make it to sectionals, so it was a lot better.”
The team maintained regular practices throughout the whole season, and during sectionals, they held these practices with assistance from additional school staff members.
“For sectionals specifically, we had some other English teachers who did speech in high school to give us feedback on our speech to help improve it for sectionals,” Kambre Wendt, junior, said. “All of this comes with additional practice at home.”
Some students assume that the scariest thing about the speech team is public speaking; however, the main stressors the members experience have little to do with speaking in public.
“The most challenging thing about competing is just actually performing because you’re up in front of people, but you’re being judged for it,” Jamalia Moore, junior, said.
The team’s spirits are up for next year—and they ope this will help encourage others to join the team.
“To have students make it this far in this very tough IHSA competition is what I am most happy about. Just to experience and see all these different performances is what truly is important,” Kukuk said. “I want them to walk away from sectionals knowing that they did their best, they put everything out there, and let the chips fall where they may.”