In a year marked by resilience, the SHS Speech team navigated a season filled with ups and downs, ultimately displaying remarkable growth and achievement.
This year’s team featured no seniors and, what’s more, those who recently graduated represented a core of veteran competitors who previously led the team to State. Another challenging loss to the Speech team was the departure of an incredible assistant coach, Iza Gawel, who filled many roles with the team over the course of the last ten years.
However, according to Coach Becky Carnes, “Even though most of the team were sophomores and some juniors, they are incredible writers and speakers. We had two sophomores and two juniors qualify for Sectionals.”
Junior Noor Khalil, in her first year, wrote and performed herself all the way to Sectionals. Sophomore Ewan Russell, a talented actor, won the Conference in Humorous Interpretation. Braylin Largo, Co-Captain, advanced individually to Regionals in Radio and also advanced with her partner, Farha Asharaf, in Dramatic Duet Acting. Freshman Josh Largo had an amazing showing at Regionals as a first year Oratorical Declamation Speaker. Sophomore Sanvi Patil qualified for Sectionals. Junior Co-Captain Alandee Patil placed as a Sectional Finalist in Impromptu Speaking.
“I feel that our bond as a team contributed to the success we had this season because we are all such close friends so we were comfortable performing our speeches in front of our teammates,” stated junior Braylin Largo. “This allowed us to give each other more advice to help make our piece’s better.”
“Conference was definitely the most exciting meet,” Carnes stated.
The team spent countless hours preparing for their competitions. Junior Alandee Patil stated, “We all put in a lot of time and work into perfecting our speeches, even if it meant coming in for multiple practices a week both before and after school.”
Making the season even more rewarding, Coach Carnes was recently named the MSL Coach of the Year. Reflecting on their coaching career, which spans over two decades, Coach Carnes expressed her gratitude.
“This was a great honor and a huge surprise,” Carnes admitted. “After 20 years of coaching, I feel that this recognition really helps me end my career with satisfaction.” Her tenure as a speech coach, after all, has been illustrious, with numerous accolades at the state, national, and regional levels.
“We have gone to State almost every year and went to Nationals twice,” Coach Carnes proudly stated. “It has been a very successful career.” Yet, what Coach Carnes treasures the most is the impact the program had on the team members themselves.
“I am most proud of the students,” she emphasized. “Each and every one of them were willing to go above and beyond to grow, change, and take some pretty harsh criticism along with great encouragement to be successful.”
Braylin Largo stated, “I would like to thank her for the last three years and for everything she has done to make speech one of the best clubs to join. She is one of the best coaches that I have ever had and we will all miss her next year.”
“Mrs. Carnes has put in so much time and effort not only to help us improve our speaking skills, but also to make our seasons fun and engaging,” added Alandee Patil.
Moving forward, the team looks to improve upon this year’s successes by dedicating themselves to their teammates and to the performances.