Looking for something fun and rewarding to do over the long winter months? Looking for an activity that will boost skills highly sought after by colleges, theaters and professional careers? Check out speech!
The Westonka Speech Team offers opportunities for students in grades 7-12 to compete in this exciting co-curricular activity. Speech is a highly competitive, skill building activity where students compete using their words. It empowers students to use their voices and to find the confidence to speak out on topics they find interesting in many different styles - persuasion, small group, educational, poetic, entertaining or creative. Aspiring actors will find many performance-based offerings, which are helpful for continuing to build on acting and auditioning skills used in theater. Students interested in current events and, especially this year, environmental issues will have opportunities to speak up and out on topics that are relevant and important today.
The coaches and captains of the Westonka Speech Team invite you to learn more about our team and the activity at the Speech Team Interest Meeting, which will be held in the Little Theater at Mound Westonka High School on Tuesday, November 1 at 7 p.m.
The 2022-23 speech season starts November 14-15, where the team will hold workshops after school designed to help students find the speech category that best suits them. Practices begin the following week, November 21. The local competitive season kicks off with Westonka's home invitational tournament, known as The Odyssey, on January 21. The Odyssey will be hosted at MWHS and Hilltop Primary School and is co-sponsored by the Orono Speech Team every year.
Following The Odyssey, the team travels to weekly tournaments, generally in the metro or surrounding area, up until spring break in March. The team is excited to travel to Duluth Denfeld’s tournament this year, which will offer an overnight stay February 3-4 for all students who wish to participate.
The Wright County Conference tournament is February 28. The MSHSL section tournament is April 15, where students will compete for a chance to compete at the state tournament on April 21. For students wishing to compete nationally, Westonka Speech offers opportunities to qualify in several national circuits, with those tournaments taking place in May and June.
Speech is a highly flexible activity, where many students are able to compete in speech while also participating in other activities at the same time. Students are encouraged to attend the weekly All Team Practices, held Mondays from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. They will also be paired with a coach, whom they will meet with one other time per week. Coaches do their best to schedule these practices at times that work for their students. The rest of the time, a student is expected to put in preparing their speeches at home when their schedules permit. Most tournaments are optional, with lettering requirements this year largely based on how many tournaments a student competes at (not how highly or often they place at tournaments).
This activity is one in which all students have the opportunity to gain important life skills, and be competitive. Generally the more a student puts in, the more they will gain both in competition and in those important life skills for their future. To find out more about us, including our calendar of activities, registration links, head to westonkaspeech.org.
