A group of Waterloo High School students specializing in public speaking and performance have had some great competitive showings this year, rounding out the season strong at state as the team has only gotten bigger and better in recent years.

WHS speech coach and English teacher John Rickert spoke with the Republic-Times to highlight a substantial number of speech team students who have shined throughout the year.

Of particular note most recently are those students who qualified for state this past weekend.

This included Kamryn Zavorka and Luke Warden in dramatic duet acting, Sydney Kuergeleis in extemporaneous speaking, Indy Otero and Audrey Davis in humorous duet acting, Luke Warden in humorous interpretation, Geraldine Blanchfield in oratorical declamation, Nick Bedford in original comedy, Zavorka in prose reading, Quincy Davis in radio speaking and Erica Crook in special occasion speaking.

Rickert said this is the most representation Waterloo’s seen at the state speech tournament, at least as far back as his available data starting in 2008.

Students reaching top 10 in their respective categories included Warden and Zavorka, Warden in his individual interpretation, Otero and Davis and Blanchfield.

The highest honor earned by Waterloo students at the state competition this year was for their Performance in the Round, which finished fourth in the state coached by Catherine Downen and assistant coach Derek Taylor.

Students in this performance included Emerson Hill, Noah Lohman, Jason Jones, Miles Toppings, Wyatt Hansel, Thomas Toolen, Lydia Cyvas, Josh Gerfen, Reagan Immethun, Sydney Barringer, Corinne Nolte, Connor Kleinschmidt, Beatrice Jones, Mia Nichols, Charlotte Keeling and Cayla Zavorka.

Additional accolades among the speech team include a victory in the sectional tournament for the third year in a row, with wins at the regional tournament twice in the past three years.

Davis was named all-state through the National Speech and Debate Association, also earning Premier Distinction, the highest level of distinction through the association.

Additionally, Otero, Kuergeleis and Blanchfield each earned Academic All-American Status through the NSDA.

With a tremendous showing on the part of his students, Rickert had high praise for them and their work ethic.

“These students work so hard, it amazes me the amount of effort that they will put in,” Rickert said. “There are some students that, even as their coach, I will have to say, ‘OK, I think you’ve done enough work. I think it’s time to put this away for a little bit and kind of recalibrate yourself.’ These are very hard-working students, and I’m very proud to coach them. They’re great.”

Kamryn Zavorka and Crook, two of four seniors who have participated on the speech team all through high school, were also available to speak about their experience as they’ve wrapped up their speech careers remarkably.

Crook said she first got involved with the team through a chance encounter with Rickert’s sister, who was helping as a coach. With a brief chat – and her interest piqued given how self-admittedly outspoken she is – she joined the team.

Kamryn became interested through Emma Wittenauer, a former star of the speech team.

“I’ve been doing acting and musical theatre my whole life, so that aspect appealed to me a lot, but I had a friend who was on the team, and she was a two-time state finalist,” she said. “We had done theatre in the past, and she told me that I would enjoy speech. So I got into it and then obviously just really enjoyed it.”

The two students spoke further about some of the particulars of speech team and competitions. With a total of 14 events or performance categories, students are able to select whatever niche best appeals to them.

Students can go solo or with a partner, perform something humorous or dramatic and opt for an existing but edited script or their own work.

With her acting interest, Kamryn spoke about how she has been particularly drawn toward humorous and dramatic interpretation categories and original comedy performances. She’s further had a passion for poetry and prose reading.

Crook spoke about her interest in the more presentation-leaning categories. She pointed to original declamation – she compared it to presenting an edited TED talk – as well as original oratory and special occasion speaking, which are both student-written persuasive speeches covering somewhat different niches of public speaking.

Crook also noted how this flavor of speech has helped her feel a sense of empowerment.

“I primarily focus on women’s issues, so like abusive relationships,” Crook said. “This one was about glorifying criminals, like the Ted Bundys of the world. Or medical issues. A lot of people feel as though their opinion, their voice doesn’t matter in high school, and speech has really given me an opportunity to show that it does, and change can happen even if you aren’t grown up yet.”

Both students had plenty more to say about the benefits they’ve felt by participating in speech the past few years, with Crook describing how the training has already helped her professionally.

“I often get the compliment that I’m a very well-spoken individual when I have business interviews, job interviews, and I can directly contribute that to speech,” Crook said. “If you look at my speeches freshman year, they were nowhere near as professional as they are now.”

Kamryn emphasized the benefit of learning to improvise given those times a performance inevitably goes off the rails.

“There’s so many skills about public speaking in general and learning to think on your feet because you’re the only one up there if you forget your speech, which happens to everybody,” Kamryn said.

The two also spoke about the impact the team has had on them personally, both describing it as a family of sorts.

“This team has meant so so much to me,” Kamryn said. “I feel like it’s a family we’ve created over the past four years. I’m gonna miss it a lot. We’re so lucky to have such a wonderful coach.”

They also commented on the support network that the team provides, with Crook further noting how the group brings together students with varying interests and backgrounds.

“It’s a very loving, familial environment,” Crook said. “We go through the ups and downs together. We go through our wins, we go through our losses. The friendships that we’ve built… With speech, we get cheerleaders, we get people on the math team, it’s so many walks of life.”

Rickert also shared his more general thoughts on speech and the impact he’s seen it have on the students he’s coached.

He particularly emphasized how scores and rankings aren’t the core of speech for him. A far greater interest is in growth, particularly given that plenty of speech team members stick with the program from year to year.

“It doesn’t matter what your scores are,” Rickert said. “It doesn’t matter how you rank. None of that really matters because, if you are brave enough to stand up in front of a room full of people that you don’t know and give something that you prepared, just from a pragmatic standpoint, when you go off to college, you are going to be better situated to be successful in those collegiate classes that you have to take.”

Rickert also echoed many of the sentiments expressed by Crook and Kamryn, mainly how the team becomes a very close family of students, supporting one another through difficult competitions and critiques.

The core of speech team, as he described, is personal betterment.

“Are you a better version of yourself than you were the previous year? Have you improved?” Rickert said. “That’s what’s most important.”

Speaking further on the speech team’s current and continued success, Rickert expressed his thanks to the many parents who offer their time and support for the students. He also noted past coach Dr. Phil Silsby for his support as well as his own former coach Jane Bailey.