Speech Tournament

Vernois News Staff

Another exciting speech tournament greeted members of the MV speech team on Saturday, January 12. Students gathered in H parking lot at 5:15 AM, and the bus rolled out at 5:30.

Speech members had the opportunity to visit a school even older than Mt. Vernon, Harrisburg High School, built in 1901. The building was confusing to students at first, but they soon grew accustomed to the format of the school. Registration for teams began at 6:45 AM, and soon after that the competition was underway.

Harrisburg -- 1/12/2008

Round one began at 8:30, and several members made their way to the rooms. Radio speakers headed to the library to begin preparing their scripts. Duet partners nervously awaited their turns while single performers only had the comfort of people from surrounding schools. One by one, the competitors performed, and scores began surfacing.

Soon, it was time for the other half of round one to begin. Now was the time for dramatic interpreters, radio speakers, verse readers, and oratorical competitors to shine. Rounds carried on similarly to the first one, just with different types of events.

Finally, round two began, and students headed off again. Some came back with bragging rights, while others were less sure of themselves. The second part began, and then everyone was done with their rounds.

Harrisburg -- 1/12/2008

Then, it was time to wait. The posters that announced who would make it to finals would be posted soon, and the air was thick with tense nerves.

After nearly an hour wait, a single poster was brought out – Radio. Speakers from that event flocked towards it, including MV’s two competitors in that event. They celebrated together as they found their names: Alex Mocaby, ’09, and Alicia Sheldon, ’10.

The two headed to prepare again, and the other competitors waited to see their results. Though no one else from MV broke finals, several were very close.

Awards began around 5:00, and radio was one of the first announced. One by one, the JV names were called, until second place was given to Alicia Sheldon. In Varsity, Alex Mocaby was announced as the sixth place winner. Members of the MV team cheered their teammates on as they returned to their seats.

The Harrisburg tournament left all speech students looking forward to the next one, on January 19 at Waterloo, the last normal meet of the year.