Speech members have found some success early in the season with the help of their new speech team coach Amanda Helvey. 

   Helvey found her passion for speech early on, where she later carried it into her career. 

   “I chose to teach speech because I loved it in high school and knew I wanted to continue to work in the realm of speech and theater. It has always appealed to me how it can appeal to a wide variety of people and sometimes it is the people you least expect who blow you away once they choose to participate in it,” Helvey said. 

  Competitions are typically held in two rounds where students compete in one of 3-5 rooms with 6-8 students performing the same category in front of one judge. Students are ranked in their rooms, first place through last. After the two rounds, scores are added together, students are aiming for the lowest score. The six students with the lowest scores advance to the finals where students compete one last time for a panel of three judges. 

   After the final round, scores are added together again and are awarded places based on their total points from that round. The lowest score gets first place and so on and so forth. 

   Helvey has led the team to win several awards at just the start of the season.The team traveled to Marion C contest in Windsor on November 2nd, where seniors Kathryn Ricke and Samantha Blake received sixth place in Improv Duet Acting. There have been several students final this year. Senior Alexa Scrivener, juniors Kyleigh Hines, Emmaleigh Kowal, Sabrina Uptgraft, seniors Josh Simpson, Aubrianna Umlauf, Kathryn Ricke and Samantha Blake have all placed in at least one category at a contest this year. 

   Alexa Scrivener received fourth place in Poetry, third place in Dramatic Interpretation, and second place in Storytelling and Kyleigh Hines received first 1st place in Poetry. 

   As a team, Warsaw competed against schools with 2-3 times more entries than what the Warsaw team entered.

While contests are stressful, it is the members love for speech that push them to continue to work their hardest to perform  their best at each contest. When asked what their favorite thing about speech is, senior Alexa Scriviner said “I really like my team because we’re really close and spend a lot of time together. I like competing because I’m kind of competitive, and I really like acting so it’s a combination of everything I like to do.”  

Senior Aj McMillan said her favorite thing about speech and debate is “ Meeting new people and being able to express things you’re passionate about.”