Speech team, one of the many different clubs and extracurricular activities students can participate in at Warren, has begun their season this school year. With a full team of fifteen members, the team is ready to make an impact at meets.
The coaches for the Warren Central speech team this year are Jeffrey Arvin, Christian Littell and Candace Winfrey. They hope to make the speech team a fun club and try their best to help the team members improve their skills.
“It is a great time,” Arvin said. “We have a bunch of kids that are really making some progress with their skills this year. On top of seeing all their progress it is kind of like seeing a family come together which is awesome too.”
Practicing for meets is both productive and fun at the same time, according to its members. The main focus of practices is to sharpen their skills and prepare them for their upcoming meets.
“Sometimes we go through how we should move on stage, how we should say things, proper diction, we're going through stuff like making sure you have everything memorized, stuff like that,” junior Ivan Landers said.
Speech team meets consist of multiple rounds of many different events. These events showcase the team members' acting and public speaking skills where they give their piece in front of a judge who decides which student wins that event. Members of the team say that speech meets are an experience like no other.
“For meets, we will usually meet really early,” junior Allison Jeffries said. “We'll have a bus ride where we all sleep and then once we get there, we'll eat a type of breakfast, usually get donuts and practice warming up again, and then say good luck and go on to our competitions.”
Not only are the coaches helping the members of the speech team, even their own teammates help critique their speeches by giving feedback and constructive criticism to their fellow teammates.
“We oftentimes have to judge each other,” Landers said. “You don't wanna go to a meeting and let the judge be the first person to really judge you on how good you are, but the team and the teammates should judge each other and keep each other in check, you know, and help each other with their pieces.”
Overall the team dynamic is more like a family than just a group of people, which has made speech more fun for its members.
“The team dynamic feels like it's just a club of everybody hanging out,” Jeffries said. “We joke around, we have fun, we laugh about things and support each other through any difficulties.”
Along with having a strong relationship with their teammates, they also have created strong bonds with their coaches.
“You obviously keep that kind of coach-teacher dynamic, but sometimes it feels like we're all just hanging out together and it's a lot of fun,” Jeffries said.
With much to look forward to this year, the team is hoping and preparing for a successful season leading up to one of their most important meets, sectionals.
“I expect us to continue to improve and have fun,” Littell said. “It would be great to see us make a good sectional run.”