Seward High Participates in David City Speech Tourney
By Clark Kolterman
February 15, 2010
The Seward High Speech Team, coached by Clark Kolterman, traveled David City to participate in their annual high school speech tourney on Saturday, Feb. 13th, 2010. The contest hosted 30 schools and almost 600 entries. Seward’s team was recognized, placing 5th of the 30 teams competing.
Three Seward High Senior students won five medals at the David City Speech contest. Andrew Sorsen, SHS Senior, was first runner up in Extemporaneous Speaking. He addressed issues including “Taliban”, “Toyota recalls” and “Pakistan.” He placed fourth in Persuasive Speaking with the topic of “The Third Party.” Senior, Stephanie Rippstein placed eighth in Persuasive Speaking on “The Benefits of Art Education” and third in Informative Public Speaking about “The Phantom of the Opera.” Sarah Garbers, an SHS Senior, won the third place medal in the Entertaining Speaking division with the topic of “I’m An Asian Sensation!” All of the medalists won Superior Ratings.
Other students participating from Seward High included Matt Johnson in Informative on “Coffee”-Superior, Katie Thrailkill in Persuasive on “The Role of Athletes”-Superior and Poetry with a theme of “Curiosity” featuring “Drowning in Wheat” by John Kinsella, “Curiosity” by Alistair Reid and Poem from a Three Year Old by Brendon Kennely-Superior, Blake Vajgrt in Extemp Speaking, with topics on “Drug Wars” and “post High School Education”-Superior. Michelle Ness competed in Entertaining Speaking on “Spiders”-Superior, Duet “Brown and Whitmore by John LaMasters with Bobi Albrecht-Excellent and Drama Team with Dayna Svoboda, Daniel Pfeiffer, Carl Heinicke and Jillian Kongsjord in “Frog Prince” by John Jackson-Excellent. Dayna Svoboda participated in Serious Prose with “My Mother’s Touch” by Lauran Deeya-Superior and a duet with Jillian Kongsjord titled “The Boy Book” by Jan Jones-Superior. Daniel Pfeiffer won a superior rating with his Humorous Prose selection “Collage Interview” by John C. Havens. He was also in a duet with Stephanie Rippstein, “Helping Hamlet” byAlan Haehneal-Superior. Ariana Miller competed in Poetry with a theme of “Fairy Tales” featuring “Crumbs” by Adam Rulli Gibbs, “The Mermaid Sets the Story Straight” by Debra Cash, “Little Cinder” by Jeannine Hall Grosley and “Briar Rose” by Debra Cash.-Superior rating.
Dillon Holder and Bethany Rexus presented the duet “Earth Quake” by Lisa Soland-Excellent rating. Lea Kayton participated in Informative Speaking on “Stress Fractures”-superior and in Persuasive Speaking on “Cooperatives”-Superior. Alyssa Sleight participated in Informative Speaking on “OCD”-Excellent and Persuasive Speaking on “Mentoring”-Excellent. Jaclyn Pennington presented a Perusasive speech on “Women in Business” –Excellent and an Informative Speech on “Broadway”-Superior. Carl Heinicke participated in Extemp Speaking on topics of “The Obama Campaign Promises” and “Brazil’s Economy”-Superior Rating.
The team travels to Milford High School’s speech tourney Saturday, Feb. 20 and to York High for the Conference Speech contest on Feb. 22 and theDistrict Speech contest on Feb. 27th at Schuyler. The NSAA State Speech contest in March 18th in Kearney at UNK.
