by Kass Salisbury
The Elwood Pirate Speech Team has been successful so far this year. The season is coming to an end and members are gearing up for districts.
This is Nicole Salisbury’s fifth year being the speech coach for EHS.
According to Salisbury, this year’s team is the largest since the year of 2020-2021. “There are five members on the EHS Speech Team,” commented Salisbury. “We have people competing in informative, persuasive, entertainment, extemporaneous, program or oral interpretation, and duet acting. We just have districts and state left for contests this year.”
By participating on the speech team, students develop a variety of skills.
“Students gain confidence, organizational skills, time-management skills, and learn how to communicate effectively. They also develop relationships with team members and people from other teams,” explained Salisbury.
Salisbury said the biggest part of her job as a coach is to help students practice and be prepared for competitions.
“I provide feedback and help them develop their speeches. I also take students to the speech meets and offer support while they're there,” she said.
Salisbury said that she thinks if students could see what speech contests are really like, what they can learn, and how much fun being on a speech team is, they would be more willing to participate.
“This year’s team members have been putting in a lot of work and have been successful so far,” said Salisbury. “I’m excited to see how the rest of the season goes and what they can accomplish.”