Speech sends 9 competitors to State

Morgan Rogers
May 10, 2010
Filed under Activities, Student Life

BSM speech team managed to send nine competitors to the state competition and Alex Plouff, who has been a storyteller since her freshman year, took first place in her category, finally showcasing her numerous hours of practice and dedication.

The nine speechers battled fierce competition from strong schools like Eagan, Eastview, Apple Vally, Roseville and Lakeville North. “You don’t walk into state with expectations, it’s so unpredictable,” said Coach Maura Brew, ” all I wanted is for each competitor to truly feel they did they’re best.”

In order to qualify for state, these competitors had to rank in the first three positions at sections. Once at state, the tournament consisted of three preliminary rounds and one final round. In order to get to the final round, or what is known as breaking, a competitor must have one of the eight highest cumulative scores overall from the first three rounds. If one breaks first, they had the highest overall score of all the competitors in their category and so on, all the way down to eighth.

After the first three preliminary rounds, four of the Red Knights broke into final round. Bernardo Vigil broke second in Creative Expression, Kelsey Myrhe broke second in Serious Poetry, Liam Brew broke fifth in Great Speeches, and Alex Plouff broke fifth in Storytelling. “I was really proud and relieved, like all the work that I had put in was finally paying off,” said Vigil, “when I saw my name I kind of flipped out for a second then just had to focus myself for final round.”

Later at awards, Myrhe and Brew both took home eighth place, while Vigil took fourth. The highlight of the Red Knights’ tournament came when Alex Plouff took home the blue ribbon for first place in storytelling. “Honestly, I was completely shocked when I won. I thought Jessy Soderbeck (from Eagan) was going to beat me. I will definitely never forget it,” said Plouff.

Also competing for the Red Knights was junior Sean Simonson, sophomore Leila Aboussir, sophomore Emily Herrmann, senior and novice Martha Hawkinson and freshman and novice Emily Kline. “It was really nerve-wracking,” said Aboussir, “but I was so excited to be there, especially as a sophomore competing mainly against seniors.”

The speech season of 2009-2010 has officially wrapped up, but coaches and team members alike are already looking forward to the possibilities that next year holds. “Next year is going to be really exciting. We have a really strong, talented, young team all of whom are growing and developing and becoming stronger and stronger,” said Ms. Brew.

Captains Alex Plouff, Shannon Cron, Sean Simonson, Nate Muckley and Jack Tift, are working their best to ensure the Red Knights have another successful season. “We have so much talent next year, I’m excited to see even more people go to state,” said Simonson.