On Friday, October 10th the whole team travelled to Winner. It was a small competition in which everyone gained a lot of experience and received some great feedback. Oral Interp judging and places vary widely so for this small competition the following awards were available: Good, Excellent, and Superior. Our 2025 team is as follows: Matthew Kokes, Taya Stone, Anjali Zephier, Samuel Kafka, Portlyn Jones, Braelyn Jones, and Isabelle Myer.

Kokes is participating for the first time and earned two superior awards for his humorous and non-original oratory selections. His humorous selection, “Thank You for Texting” by Camila Vasquez, puts a voice to the thoughts of a performer while someone is rudely texting during their speech. His Non-Original Oratory takes on a more serious tone with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1944 Campaign Speech.

It is year three for Stone, however, her first experience performing in the Non-Original Oratory category. She performed the timely TED talk “Confessions of a Depressed Comic” by Kevin Breel which aims to help end the stigma that comes with depression. Stone earned an excellent. She also received a superior for her serious piece.

Zephier, Myer, and Braelyn Jones competed in the poetry category, and all earned a superior award. Myer’s selections from “Save Me an Orange” by Hayley Grace explain the significance of an orange as more than a piece of fruit.

Kafka’s serious piece dramatically shows a devastating result of texting and driving. He received an excellent for his performance.

Portlyn and Braelyn Jones performed in Duo and received a superior. Portlyn and Anjali were also in the storytelling category and earned superior and excellent awards, respectively.

On Saturday, October 18th, four participants travelled to Brandon Valley. Kafka, Kokes, Stone, and Zephier competed in three rounds of tough competition. The team placed 11th out of 26 schools. Kafka made it to novice serious finals and got 5th place. The other participants received good feedback, and high individual scores just had some incredible competition.

This upcoming week is a busy one with the team travelling to Lennox on Tuesday, October 21st and to Bon Homme on Friday, October 24th. Our home performance will be November 3rd at 6pm.