This year the OHS Speech team has a total of 62 members—a new record for the team. They are only four meets in and the team has already been off to an extremely successful start, placing second overall in one of their most recent meets.
The team’s captains are seniors: Elijah Leon, Idalia Anderson, Ava Kleeberger, and Jace Forcelle, along with sophomore Ayoub Farah. The head coach is Ms. Marica Anderson with assistant coaches Mr. Mark Anderson, Ms. Melissa Gergen, and Ms. Betsy Cole.
Ms. Marcia Anderson said, “We’ve had several team members advance to finals and place at the meets we’ve been to so far. At the John Marshall meet the team as a whole earned second place. Even though speech is somewhat an individual activity, our team really comes together and supports each other.”
Kleeberger is a part of the category Dramatic Duos with her partner senior Emma Green, and has been a part of speech since seventh grade.
Kleeberger said, “I compete in Dramatic Duo with Emma Green and the season has been going great so far. We have consistently been placing first and second at our meets. Being in Duo means being a lot more involved in the activity than a regular category since it requires communication and cooperation. This is our third year doing this category together. For the rest of the season, Emma and I are hoping to continue to improve and head to state once again this year.”
Leon competes in a category called Discussion, which is a role play, and out of the four meets so far he has consistently ranked in the top two— while having to miss the most recent meet.
Leon said, “I have two things in mind this year: Champion in Discussion [winning at State] and getting 14 people to State. We are in a really good place, but as a captain, I really just want to get as many people to State as possible and that would mean the world to have everyone do great at Big Nine and earn a Championship title, like we did couple years ago, to then get everyone hyped to State and win some awards.”
Their next competition is a home meet on Saturday, March 9 at Owatonna High School.
