With hard work and an end goal in mind, five speech performers qualified for National Speech and Debate Association competition in June.
Senior Jenna Sales qualified in dramatic interpretation. with an emotional piece “When Thoughts and Prayers Aren’t Enough” by Taylor Schumann.
“I do a 10-minute, 30-second monologue,” Sales said. “I talk about the experience and emotions of a teacher through a school shooting and kind of act it out.”
Sales has been to nationals twice.
“It (nationals) is really fun,” Sales said. “Nationals is much bigger, with thousands of kids competing in different events, and it’s really cool seeing others’ pieces and the diversity. They are using their voices for topics that aren’t talked about enough.”
Seniors Owen Adam and Javen Gutierrez qualified in duo interpretation. The contest requires that they never touch or make eye contact.
“He (Owen) is one of my closest friends, so we have a very strong chemistry, and we like to make people laugh,” Gutierrez said. “We can’t make eye contact or touch each other, so we avoid each other and just make a bunch of jokes.”
Adam will be attending nationals for the first time.
“It’s going to be insane because we are going up against the best in the nation,” Adam said, “and all of the qualifiers happen to be from Texas, which is awesome.”
Gutierrez said he has confidence in the bond he has with his acting partner.
“He is one of my closest friends,” Gutierrez said. “We have a very strong chemistry and like to make people laugh.”
The competitors choose their own performance pieces.
“They get to pick whatever piece they want,” speech teacher Savanna Winn said. “They take whatever script they are wanting to use and cut it down into a minute and 10 seconds, and I just help them shape it.”
Junior Kobe Cabello, who qualified in humorous interpretation doing “Crazy, Stupid Love” by David Fogleman, has experience at the national level.
“This will be my third time going,” Cabello said. “It is very competitive but very fun. It will be difficult because it is the entire nation all at one place.”
Winn said this team is dedicated.
“I think one of the strengths we had this year was just consistency,” Winn said. “They took everything they did last year and just built upon that, and this year was going in and doing what they know how to do.”
It’s the first time at nationals for senior Gianna Critchfield, who performs a dramatic interpretation about the abduction of Lisa McBay.
“I have no idea how it will be because I’ve never been,” Critchfield said. “I’ve heard it’s a lot jampacked into a couple days.”
The competition will be in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 15-22.
