In the last few weeks, our decorated speech team attended section and state tournaments. As always, our talented students took home many victories and awards.

Like other Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) competitions, teams aim to win their way through several location-based ranks. The first level is known as sections. From here, the top three competitors go on to the state tournament. At state, students can qualify to go on to even larger national speech tournaments. There are also a handful of separate competitions that can qualify students for nationals.

Speech events consist of thirteen unique categories.  Students choose any one of them to practice and participate. The categories can be loosely separated into creative and informative performances. Some are even skit-like in nature, in which students play the role of a character.

With the best scores overall, Apple Valley placed first as a team at the section tournament on April 6th. The speech team has continued to distinguish itself over the years — checking out their statistics site is an especially good way to see this for yourself.

At the state competition, the highest ranking competitor for each category is crowned a state champion. This year, Apple Valley’s Sarah Grambo was state champion in Informative Speaking. Four students (Marlena Santos, Teja Lawrence, Stephanie Kahle, and Moti Begna) also took second place in their events, and one took third place (Jane Michaelson). Grambo and 20 other students will be continuing on to larger competitions in coming months.

“There’s still quite a bit of season yet to go,” said speech coach Dr. Scott Voss. “We have about twenty students who will be going to Colorado in early May for one national tournament, then another dozen or so will be going to California over Memorial Day weekend for a second national tournament. But the great big grand national tournament is right after school lets out in the second week of June. It’ll be in Salt Lake City, Utah.”

Over all, Apple Valley took third place at state, two points behind the two schools tied for first — and two points is only a miniscule difference. The opposing schools had many more members on their team, but Apple Valley’s showing was strong enough to close the gap made by their advantage.

The speech program will continue to build its legacy — one that already stretches back for decades. It is both highly prosperous program, and a home for its students. “Speech, unlike any other event that I’ve known, is this community of people,” said junior Linnea Prehn. “We all know each other and we’re all really connected and we help each other out.”

Apple Valley is rightfully very proud of its speech team. Their continued efforts have played a major role in winning our school recognition. Through hard work, dedication, and practice on behalf of talented students and coaches, the speech team continues its amazing legacy.