Four speech team members take home ribbons in year’s first competition

WADENA — The Verndale/Wadena-Deer Creek school speech team took home four ribbons from its first competition of the year on Feb. 11 at Underwood High school.

That means that more than half of the team’s seven competitors scored a top placing, even though only one of those students had ever previously competed in a speech competition, said team coach Renae Roth.

Competing in the Feb. 11 competition were:

• Mia Shaw received a red ribbon in the discussion category. Shaw is a first-year speech competitor.
• Ally Morthberg and Jaydn Larson advanced to the honor finals and received first place in the dramatic duo contest. Larson is also a first-time competitor.
• Morthberg, a sophomore who is the team captain, also placed first in honor finals in the humor category. She has been in speech since the seventh grade.
• Noelle Spicer and Chloe Leeseberg, both first-year competitors as well, advanced to honor finals and received sixth place in the dramatic duo category.
• Calvin Brooks and Levyn Roasslang, another couple of first-year competitors, fell just short of placing in the humor category.

“I'm just so proud of them, since six out of seven had never even watched a speech meet before,” coach Roth said. “But they performed great!”
While Underwood was the speech team’s first meet of the year, they will now compete almost every Saturday until the sub-sections contest in April. This past weekend, they were scheduled to travel to Browerville for a competition.

Coach Roth said the V/W-DC speech team has improved dramatically in just two years. Last season, there were no Verndale students on the team, and there were only two Wadena-Deer Creek students, one being Morthberg, the team captain, and another student who graduated last year. This year, the team boasts five Verndale students and five Wadena-Deer Creek students.

Roth said the team hopes to spread the word about the benefits of participating in speech and grow the team even more next year.

“It's such a great activity for high school students to participate in to strengthen their confidence and ability to speak in a professional group setting,” she said.