“If you are a goofball or overly dramatic, you can find a home in Speech,” speech team coach Nathan Hopkins said.

  Many students join speech for a lot of different reasons, whether it’s because they are outgoing, they want to be more outgoing, or they just simply think it will be fun.

  “I joined speech because I wasn’t very good at speaking, and I realized that whatever I do when I grow up, I’m going to have to talk to people,” sophomore Caitlyn Easter said.

  Easter performed two pieces at the group’s first contest on Oct. 31. She performed “Now That Andi’s Gone” by Karle Dickerson and “Encouraging Kelly” by Seema Renee Gertsen.

  “I felt that I would be able to connect with the pieces emotionally so I could do them better,” Easter said.

 The speech team attends meets where students compete in different categories. The categories include Dramatic Interpretation, Prose, Humorous Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Radio Speaking, and Poetry. There are currently 23 members on the speech team. Students choose their own selections to perform in two rounds in front of judges. They are then selected for a finals round and then ranked.

  Their first meet was on Halloween at Osage, and considered a fairly big meet.

  Senior Stephanie Fisher placed sixth in poetry after the finals.

   “Which is pretty good because it was pretty big meet.” Hopkins said.

  Senior Stephanie Fisher performed three pieces at the meet. She performed “Good Thing he Can’t Read My Mind” and “Regretting What I Said” by Christine Lavin. She also performed “The Red Corvette” by John McCutcheon.

  “I chose those pieces because they are all humorous poems about relationships, and I can kind of relate. Plus they are really fun to do,” Fisher said.

  The second meet was on November 7th in Knob Noster. At that meet Caitlyn Easter placed fifth  in Dramatic Interpretation.

  The speech team makes a lot of memories off stage as well as on it.

  “This one time Paul (Derks) sat on a pizza, and then the rest of us ate the butt pizza,” said Fisher.

  When you have a meet on a holiday, like the first meet was, the speech kids generally go all out.       The first meet, being on Halloween, a lot of people dressed up for the occasion.

  “If it’s on Halloween like this one, they will bust out a full on leather face costume, complete with a human flesh face mask.” Hopkins said.

  They plan on doing a one-act this year, but are not sure what it will be yet.