As 2024 starts, the Elwood Pirates Speech Team gets to start off their 2024 season.
According to Pirate Speech Coach Nicole Salisbury, the speech team may be small with only three members (Kassandra Salsibury, Kara Brockman, and Lillian Palmer), but it is mighty. Salisbury still has goals for the team.
“Our goal for this season is for each team member to bring their best to each meet. I think team members would say that their goal is to place at each meet,” explained Salisbury.
Despite their confidence this team still has huge challenges to overcome.
“Our biggest challenge this year is the size of our team. Speech is both an individual event and a team event,” said Salisbury. “We have three really good speakers who I think will place consistently. However, we don't have the numbers to be competitive as a team and win conference or district titles.”
Even though the team is small they still have their strengths.
“Our strength is in the dedication of the team members. Each of these students has been practicing since mid-November and has been consistently working to perfect their performance,” Salisbury said “We've already seen success at the Lexington speech meet, where we brought home medals for two performances. We also brought three medals home from the Doniphan-Trumbull meet.”
Salisbury shared why she thinks students should join the speech team.
“It helps them develop life-long skills. Speech is about so much more than public speaking, though. It helps students develop their organization skills, creativity, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking,” Salisbury explained.
Salisbury also offered some advice to the brave students participating in this activity.
“Try new things. Students are generally drawn to one particular type of speech. I'd advise them to step outside their comfort zone and try a different event. You never know if you're good at something (in any activity) until you try it,” said Salisbury.
Despite the obstacles they must overcome, this team can still perform well and be contenders in all of their meets.