Glossophobia, also known as the fear of public speaking, is one of the many reasons to join the Owatonna High School speech team. This year there has been a dramatic increase of interested students, all willing to fight the anxiety of giving a speech, a total of 47 in all. When asked why there has been such an influx of participants, Coach Lauren Gendron said, “We went to more classrooms and did more recruiting, and the word has spread about the team.” Beginning with a Mock Tournament on Jan 18. the speech team will travel to a number of schools to compete including Rochester John Marshall, Red Wing and Northfield. They will also be hosting a home tournament on March 8. “It feels different to not be new to speech, I feel more confident,” Katie Skalicky said. Students can gain this confidence this year by joining, or next year they would love to have anyone involved.