The speech team is off to a great start!
Many LCHS competitors have placed in the first two competitions of the season. At the Normal West Tourney six of the seven competitors placed. At Limestone’s Early Bird, every competitor placed in at least one event.
Limestone has had three jv tournament champions including Hope Baughman in humorous interpretation at Normal West and Marianna Bills in Original Oratory and Marianna Bills and Julia Lopez in Humorous Duet Acting at the Early Bird.
The Rockets will continue competition on November 16th, at Olympia. November, 23rd at Richwoods, and finish out the semester on December 14th at Normal Community before picking back up second semester. The IHSA series begins in February.
Speech has 14 different events ranging from humorous and dramatic duet acting to radio speaking and many many more. Competitors can perform scripts, prewritten public speeches, or write and perform speeches the same day under timed guidelines.
Head coach Mrs. Hannah Connelley has been coaching speech at Limestone for nine years in 2016 when she was only 19 years old. Mrs. Cathy Largent is her assistant coach.
The team meets after school on Monday for information and reminders. Students are expected to sign up for a thirty-minute practice for every event they have each week. Most of them have two events so only one hour is required for them to sign up for a practice with a coach.
“To anyone who’s thinking about joining speech, I’d like to tell them to give it a shot! Public speaking sounds terrifying but once you’ve done it the excitement for the competition grows tenfold. It’s not just public speaking, if you’re interested in acting in the future, speech is an amazing way to get your feet off the ground. Speech was the whole reason I got a theater scholarship in college!” Hannah encourages.
Students still interested in joining speech can see Connelley or Largent in Room 31.
