The Galena High School Speech Team has been competing each Saturday since the beginning of December. Speech is competitive public speaking, and the nine GHS students who have prepared to compete are dedicated and their hard work is a huge achievement.
So far, the GHS Speech team has had a wonderful season. As a freshman, Seven Smith ‘28 has already been making varsity in his event, original comedy multiple times, as well as being second in novice. According to the IHSA, Original Comedy is: The oral presentation of the student’s original comedic work. The purpose of OC is to enable students to employ their creative skills in the writing and presentation of humorous material designed to entertain.
Smith ‘28 said, “I was utterly shocked when I saw I made it to varsity at my first tournament. It gave me a huge confidence boost.”
Senior and Speech Team Captain, Julia Dominiak has also done an amazing job by placing first in next in for extemp speaking and second in varsity for original oratory. The IHSA describes her first event, Extemporaneous Speaking as: The oral presentation of a speech on a selected topic of international or domestic issues in which a student indicates their knowledge of current events concerning an assigned topic.
Dominiak ‘25 said, “Placing varsity has always been something I’ve been working toward, and it feels amazing to see that effort pay off.” Her other event is Original Oratory and is described as The oral presentation of the student’s original persuasive speech. The purpose of Original Oratory is to guide students in audience analysis, topic selection, research, organization, and development of a sense of a literary style in a speech designed to express convictions and persuade an audience.
However, the speech team has also faced many challenges. By being a smaller school, it’s always hard to get more points and compete against other schools. Compared to schools like DeKalb who have 50 students, we only have 9. Liliana Asta ‘26 said, “It can be really tough at times, but it helps me stay motivated and want to do better against these schools.” Asta’s category is Original Declamation and is described as: The oral presentation of persuasive or inspirational material of literary merit. The purpose of OD is to acquaint students with notable examples of persuasive or inspirational literature and provide them an opportunity to develop skills of interpretation and delivery through the preparation and oral presentation of such examples.
Throughout all of their tournaments so far, the speech team has done amazing things. At the Byron Holiday Classic tournament, six people managed to get into finals which really helped out their team points. For every person who competes, their team gets points which goes into the possibility of getting a team award. Unfortunately, the speech team didn’t go home with an award, but they did all go home proud of themselves. Justin Lin ‘28 said, “I’m really proud of myself for how I did at this tournament. I was really happy about it.”
The next tournament will be at Rock Falls on Saturday, January 18. The speech team has been practicing and has been very focused on their speeches. Luna Pham ‘27 said, “I’ve been trying my best to practice as much as I can. Speech has been really fun so far and I want to dedicate a lot to it.” Pham competes in the area of Prose Reading – The oral interpretation of prose literature. The purpose of Prose Reading is to acquaint students with the genre and the application of the theories and principles of oral interpretation.
However, no matter how they do, Speech Coach Susan Bookless said, “I am always really proud of this team no matter where they place. We’ve done a lot this year, and I can’t wait for what the future holds.”
