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Apr. 19—Austin speech team members ready for state, revel in growing success
For the five Austin High School speech team members who recently qualified for the state meet, it's an exciting opportunity to present their material one more time on Minnesota's biggest speech stage.
But it's also a cumulative step forward for a program that in some ways is still considered young at the school.
"I just think we're building confidence as a team," said head coach Dan Hanson. "I always try to reinforce this because I get excited about the competitive side of it too. It is about them and it's about just kind of witnessing and documenting their growth as communicators and public speakers, performers, actors ... we did do it all."
Those who qualified for the state meet, which is this coming Friday and Saturday, include Lydia Masara, Ailani Thiravong, Alice Osmonson, J.B. Holtorf and Elaine Chumba.
Masara and Thiravong finished first in Duo Interpretation at the section meet on April 10 in Northfield, while Osmonson and Holtorf took third in the category.
Chumba is heading to state after taking third in Prose Interpretation.
"Seeing all of my teammates make it to the finals was really fun and it's nice we're not doing it alone," Masara said. "We're doing it together. I've seen how hard we've all worked. I've seen each other's speeches and how we've all grown. I'm really happy."
As the name suggests, Duo Interpretation is a partner-based category where speakers create a script out of material written by somebody else. It can be from media like movies and TV shows or even poetry.
But it's more than just performing the script together, because there is a notable challenge to it. Teammates can't touch each other during the performance, nor can they look directly at each other.
Hanson likened the performance to a dance.
"You kind of become more in sync," Holtorf agreed, referring also to Osmonson. "We'll have moments outside of speech where we'll say the exact same thing at the exact same time. You have to put yourself in their shoes so much you can't quite get out of it at the end."
For Chumba, performing on her own comes with its own challenges, including not having someone to lean on when performing. But at the same time it comes with its own development of believing in herself.
"It's a lot of practicing on your own and a lot of memorization, but it's also having self confidence," she said. "With a duo you have a partner and you're motivating each other. You got each other and are guiding each other through it. But with prose it's yourself and you have to remind yourself you got this. It doesn't matter if you think you look silly, because you're supposed to act. Be yourself in it."
The speech team as a whole has come a long way since its reintroduction into the school in 2019. Before that, there hadn't been a team for a number of years with the final year being in the late 2000s.
In 2019, Hanson and Joey Kretchman-Grande reformed the team and last year had their first state competitor since reforming.
"Last year we opened the door a little bit with Nawras Zaki," Hanson said. "She qualified last year in Informative Speaking. This year we've taken some more steps getting three different events qualified for state. They are all very committed. It's a wonderful thing to see."
That advancement by Zaki last year has continued to set the tone into this season.
"It's amazing to see the progress of our team," Thiravong said. "Nawras kind of set the path for us last year and as a team we've been working really hard to follow in her footsteps. She was a really awesome role model. I'm looking forward to see how our team will perform (at state)."
To be able to perform one more time has been a gift for those competing this coming weekend, because it represents one more time they get to perform the work they've put so much time into.
It's also an opportunity to get more effective comments and to better prepare themselves for next year.
All of them have stated this opportunity to compete at state is a confidence builder that has carried over skills learned in competition into other parts of their lives. But they have individually grown over the years, so they set the stage to continue growing the program as a whole.
"I think it just reminds seventh and eighth graders over at Ellis, the younger kids, this is something I can actually compete in," Hanson said. "I can go and be funny. I can have that validated with something tangible, which is an awesome thing. If kids can see more than that ... I think that's very inspirational and I think that goes a long way to recruit."
That recruitment will become more valuable next year when a debate program is reignited at the school which had its last state champion in the Lincoln Douglas debates in Jason Baskin.
Hanson said they are starting simple at first, but after taking a group to a debate last year, he said there is good energy in the new endeavor.
"We're going to start small with Congressional Debate," Hanson said. "We just took a trip to a John Marshall Tournament, just to see what it was. They loved watching the sparring."
The Minnesota State High School League Speech Meet will take place on April 25-26 at Shakopee High School. For more information, visit: https://www.mshsl.org/sports-and-activities/speech
Continue reading...
For the five Austin High School speech team members who recently qualified for the state meet, it's an exciting opportunity to present their material one more time on Minnesota's biggest speech stage.
But it's also a cumulative step forward for a program that in some ways is still considered young at the school.
"I just think we're building confidence as a team," said head coach Dan Hanson. "I always try to reinforce this because I get excited about the competitive side of it too. It is about them and it's about just kind of witnessing and documenting their growth as communicators and public speakers, performers, actors ... we did do it all."
Those who qualified for the state meet, which is this coming Friday and Saturday, include Lydia Masara, Ailani Thiravong, Alice Osmonson, J.B. Holtorf and Elaine Chumba.
Masara and Thiravong finished first in Duo Interpretation at the section meet on April 10 in Northfield, while Osmonson and Holtorf took third in the category.
Chumba is heading to state after taking third in Prose Interpretation.
"Seeing all of my teammates make it to the finals was really fun and it's nice we're not doing it alone," Masara said. "We're doing it together. I've seen how hard we've all worked. I've seen each other's speeches and how we've all grown. I'm really happy."
As the name suggests, Duo Interpretation is a partner-based category where speakers create a script out of material written by somebody else. It can be from media like movies and TV shows or even poetry.
But it's more than just performing the script together, because there is a notable challenge to it. Teammates can't touch each other during the performance, nor can they look directly at each other.
Hanson likened the performance to a dance.
"You kind of become more in sync," Holtorf agreed, referring also to Osmonson. "We'll have moments outside of speech where we'll say the exact same thing at the exact same time. You have to put yourself in their shoes so much you can't quite get out of it at the end."
For Chumba, performing on her own comes with its own challenges, including not having someone to lean on when performing. But at the same time it comes with its own development of believing in herself.
"It's a lot of practicing on your own and a lot of memorization, but it's also having self confidence," she said. "With a duo you have a partner and you're motivating each other. You got each other and are guiding each other through it. But with prose it's yourself and you have to remind yourself you got this. It doesn't matter if you think you look silly, because you're supposed to act. Be yourself in it."
The speech team as a whole has come a long way since its reintroduction into the school in 2019. Before that, there hadn't been a team for a number of years with the final year being in the late 2000s.
In 2019, Hanson and Joey Kretchman-Grande reformed the team and last year had their first state competitor since reforming.
"Last year we opened the door a little bit with Nawras Zaki," Hanson said. "She qualified last year in Informative Speaking. This year we've taken some more steps getting three different events qualified for state. They are all very committed. It's a wonderful thing to see."
That advancement by Zaki last year has continued to set the tone into this season.
"It's amazing to see the progress of our team," Thiravong said. "Nawras kind of set the path for us last year and as a team we've been working really hard to follow in her footsteps. She was a really awesome role model. I'm looking forward to see how our team will perform (at state)."
To be able to perform one more time has been a gift for those competing this coming weekend, because it represents one more time they get to perform the work they've put so much time into.
It's also an opportunity to get more effective comments and to better prepare themselves for next year.
All of them have stated this opportunity to compete at state is a confidence builder that has carried over skills learned in competition into other parts of their lives. But they have individually grown over the years, so they set the stage to continue growing the program as a whole.
"I think it just reminds seventh and eighth graders over at Ellis, the younger kids, this is something I can actually compete in," Hanson said. "I can go and be funny. I can have that validated with something tangible, which is an awesome thing. If kids can see more than that ... I think that's very inspirational and I think that goes a long way to recruit."
That recruitment will become more valuable next year when a debate program is reignited at the school which had its last state champion in the Lincoln Douglas debates in Jason Baskin.
Hanson said they are starting simple at first, but after taking a group to a debate last year, he said there is good energy in the new endeavor.
"We're going to start small with Congressional Debate," Hanson said. "We just took a trip to a John Marshall Tournament, just to see what it was. They loved watching the sparring."
The Minnesota State High School League Speech Meet will take place on April 25-26 at Shakopee High School. For more information, visit: https://www.mshsl.org/sports-and-activities/speech
Continue reading...
