By Chloe Fawver
Loud and proud! The Aurora Speech team has been working diligently in preparation for their first speech meet at Adams Central on Jan. 10. Speech team members and entertainment speakers freshman Jasper Bennett and junior Jessica Rodriguez have been preparing their visual aids for the first meet. Jessica wrote her speech this year about the dentist. “I’m looking forward to this season with my friends and watching everyone grow as speakers honestly,” Jessica said.
Coaches Keli Margritz and Leah Solko have been working endlessly as well. Their hard work for the team is extremely important for their speakers' chances to improve. Before Christmas break, Margritz was setting up times with speech students in their sophomore, junior, or senior years. This brought a huge sense of comfort to these people, because they knew their couch would always be there to help. Even over Christmas break, Margritz and Solko were helping students in their writing and researching. Coach Margritz said, “I will always help my people, even if that means setting up separate times to help them and continue to write or practice. I just want these kids to have fun and be successful.”
Senior Scott Bennett was a state qualifier last season, and this year he is hoping to accomplish that again. Scott said he was debating quitting the team for his senior year, because of a very busy schedule. However, he quickly realized that speech is something he is passionate about and he spoke to coach Margritz himself. Scott is on the team this year, and looks forward to performing his poetry program and his program of oral interpretation (POI).
This year, the AHS speech team will be attending seven regular meets, and then the conference, district, and state meets afterwards. Keeping this in mind, in those seven meets, there is the Aurora Invitational on Feb. 7. With that, there are 21 total students on the team, and at least one person in each event. Coaches Margritz and Solko have nominated six students to take part in their Speech Leadership Team. This is the group of students that will take care of the water cooler, snack bag, and the emergency items. This year’s Speech Leadership Team is: seniors Lena Groetzinger, Scott Bennett, and Jayke Krueger, juniors Chloe Fawver and Jessica Rodriguez, and sophomore Shawn Morris. Along with the Aurora invite, AHS will also be hosting the district speech meet this year on March 16.