By Tanner Barry
Note cards and posters, character development, and hours of practice are all different aspects of Louisville’s Speech Team. The season ended for these Lions in March. They had 5 students come home with some hardware after state speech. But, this year wasn’t that simple, as multiple challenges caused blockades that had to be avoided.
The first of these was with the OID, or Oral Interpretation of Drama, and their 15-minute rendition of Little Shop of Horrors. Their challenge was that the season was inching closer and closer, and the team was struggling to find time to work on the act. As the reigning state champs, finding time to practice is highly critical in order to have another successful year. This year the team lost a leader in Lucas Hrabik, and a few of the veterans had to step up and take charge.
Junior Hailey Caughron said, “All of us were really stressed, including all of our coaches.”
With just a week left to spare, the team managed to get memorized and was able to put together a solid performance, which landed them a 2nd place at their first meet at Conestoga.
Another obstacle was sickness. Midway through the year the team experienced multiple members getting sick and having to either miss events or fight through them.
Sophomore Dayton Carlson said, “It was tough for sure because speech requires so much from your voice.”
Even after being sick and missing a few practices prior to the meet, Dayton still managed to get 3rd place in Entertainment and helped to get 1st place in OID. With these placements, Dayton helped the team get Runner-Up at Conference.
A final challenge the team faced was when they hosted their own meet. It just so happened that it was scheduled on the same day as a youth basketball tournament. This might just sound like a normal everyday conflict, but when it comes to speech, it has to be very quiet. Youth basketball on the other hand, is quite the opposite.
Junior Easton Fiala recalls, “A basketball game the same day as a speech meet does not sound good.”
In the end, the speech team and youth basketball were able to work it out. The events were separated into sections, and the day ended up going much smoother than what the team had expected.
“I think the season was actually pretty successful,” Fiala said, as he remembered all the good things that occurred over this period of time.
As a first year member myself, I can say that this season was a success for the team. With over 50 placings throughout the season, 6 medalists at State, getting 1st at the Weeping Water Invitational, and Runners-up at both Districts and Conference, the team is preparing for an even better season in 2025.