.jpg)
Trisha Benton Randolph Times
- Saturday, Feb. 15 at Wausa - Saturday, March 1, Laurel - Saturday, March 8, Creighton - Monday, March 10, Homer for conference competition - Monday, March 17, Wausa for districts RANDOLPH – Elsie Gilliland will be dishing out life advice this spring.
She’ll be presenting a collection of poems dealing with that topic during this year’s speech season.
In her first year at Randolph High School, Gilliland was excited to try speech as her previous school didn’t offer the extracurricular activity.
“I feel like it is a fun way to start public speaking before I have to do it in college,” said Gilliland, a senior.
Her collection of poems include “Forgiveness is Divine” and “Each Moment is Precious” by Patricia A. Fleming, and “Do Not Love Half Lovers,” by Kahlil Gilbran, among others.
“I chose to do poetry because I feel this is the category that can best convey my meaning of works while still connecting to people personally,” Gilliland said.
Other students are hoping humor connects with judges this season.
Sophomore Ryan Engel will be competing in the Oral Interpretation of Drama category with the speech “Accused of Comedy” by Carl L. Williams. He’ll be joined by Brecken Shearer, Jenna Guenther and Alaina Schulz for the group speech.
“It is a comedy speech about two comedians and they get thrown in jail for making an innocent bystander laugh. Comedy is illegal where this play takes place,” Engel said.
He has enjoyed his first speech season so far.
“I wanted to try it because I thought it would be fun. I like how funny it (the speech) is,” he said.
He predicts the team as a whole will compete well this season because of the caliber of their practices.
“Most of the practices have been early in the morning with a few get togethers during the day,” said Peggy Lackas, heading into her 21st year as the speech coach. “Finding time during the school day is challenging as the students are all extremely busy.”
This year’s team includes Gilliland; sophomores Shearer, Schulz, Guenther, Engel, Braylee Kelly, Karma Lins, Sydney Robinson, Lilly Kuctha and Delayne Thelen; and freshmen Peyton Thelen and Jaden Dickes.
The team will take their oratories on the road for the first meet set for Saturday, Feb. 15 at Wausa. The season rounds out with meets in Laurel on Saturday, March 1; Creighton on Saturday, March 8; Homer for conference competition on Monday, March 10; and then circle back to where the season began - Wausa for districts on Monday, March 17.
A home performance will be scheduled in March - the date and time to be announced, Lackas said.
“We hope to gain confidence in public speaking and bring home a few medals during the season,” she said.
