Tyrone’s oldest team was back in action on February 23 for their Winter Meet at Juniata Valley. The 19 members of the team read selections ranging from classic poetry and original works to movie monologues and even soliloquies about Shia LaBeouf. Joining the team were volunteer coach and judge Mr. Garrett Tanner and Speech Team advisor Mrs. Leah Deskevich.

“This is why I love advising the Speech Team–our speakers find texts everywhere: Craigslist, Twitter, Young Adult novels,” said Mrs. Deskevich. “Who wouldn’t want to help motivated teenagers passionately present their favorite texts?!”

Deskevich isn’t kidding either, freshman Logan Johnson was inspired to join speech team after viewing a video about the public school system, which she used as her speech. Senior Nathan Hormell read a Craigslist advertisement for a Jeep that included some colorful vocabulary and Sophomore Hannah Gampe found her poem about drunk driving on Twitter.

Some students, like Junior Zack Webster, have been working for month preparing their speeches. Webster came to Mrs. Deskevich before Thanksgiving break began to practice his speech from the movie, “The Imitation Game.”

The work and creativity of each of the team members translated well to competition. Evaluated on a scale o to 64, Tyrone as a team averaged a 57.1, good enough for an overall rating of Outstanding, the highest that they could achieve. This put them ahead of rival Williamsburg by one-tenth of a point. Though all teams performed exceedingly well, it was Tyrone’s night to shine. In the end, they came home with five individual awards and the All-School Trophy.

“I was very honored to have received the best overall award while competing against so many great speakers,” said Senior Paige Umholtz, who won the Best Overall award for the second time in her career for her serious speech, “Everybody Dies, But Not Everybody Lives.” She added,”Everyone performed well and I’m very happy to bring home the team trophy.”

Eighth grade student Anna-Lynn Fryer won the Best Junior High Overall Award for her speech “Gus’s Eulogy” from The Fault in Our Stars.

For her delivery of “Ferris Bueller’s Opening Monologue,” Junior Chloe Makdad secured the award for Best Senior High Overall.

Reading her original poem, “How Ironic, ” Freshman Hanna Denny earned Best Junior High Poetry Award. Denny’s poem is also going to appear in Tyrone’s literary publication, Stardust. 

Delivering her rendition of an excerpt from Ellen Hopkins’ Rumble, Senior Riean Minnich scored the award for Best Senior High Serious.  “I was so surprised to win this award,” said Minnich. “There were so many great speeches this time around. Everyone did amazing!”

As the top three award-winners, Fryer, Makdad, and Umholtz delivered their speeches to the whole group after dinner, a tradition that has recently been brought back out of its hiatus.

The speech team will be back in action later this spring for the final meet of the year. For the first time in recent memory, that meet could take place at Tyrone High School.

“Stay tuned for details on the home meet,” said Mrs. Deskevich. “It’s going to rock!”