Logansport HS speech send 15 students to state finals

Mar. 8—Samantha Baker stood in front of her speech coaches, practicing her performance before the state finals.

"Let's get ready to rumble," she said, reading a passage from Angela Nissel's book "The Broke Diaries."

Logansport High School speech coach Jessica Kranz wasn't satisfied. She asked Baker to channel the titans of WWE and deliver a powerful "let's get ready to rumble."

Baker delivered a guttural roar and her teammates applaud as if The Rock had just delivered the most scintillating promo in sports entertainment history.

Next up was Brooklyn Harris. Kranz asked her which speech she was practicing. When Harris answered with her poetry piece about growing up, Kranz asked "Is this going to make me cry?"

Apparently, it always does.

Kranz grabbed two Kleenexes—one for herself and one for coach Ashley Hayes.

Kranz made it five minutes and 50 seconds into the speech before she began wiping away tears.

It's cliché to call a team a family but what other way is there to describe the Logansport High School speech team. It's the care and devotion to one another—from coaches and students both—that have propelled 15 team members to the state finals this Saturday at Hamilton Southeastern High School.

On to state

The state finals isn't unfamiliar territory for the Logansport Berries. Last year, eight students qualified and the team finished in fifth place in the class AA team competition and 10th overall.

From 8 to 15, it's been a year of growth for the speech team.

Harris, a junior, recalled walking into Mrs. Kranz's classroom on the first day of the season and seeing many new faces.

"I'd like to think a lot of it is that we created an atmosphere for kids to feel as though they can tell their stories safely," Kranz said. "There are so many categories that kids can find a place that best fits them. And for so many of them, you see the comradery. It's a place where they feel accepted and loved."

Coach Chris Miller compared the growth of the team to that of the Logansport swimming and diving program.

The speech team also benefitted from the first crop of junior high speech team members moving into high school. The junior high school team is coached by Robert Justice and Natalie Baldini.

Harris and senior team president Jasmine Zimmerman have taken them all under their wings.

"These are my kids," said Zimmerman. "When I first joined, I was thrown in with a very small team. And this year we have so many kids. So, I try being energetic and express to them that this is fun and we are not supposed to be stressed out and worried about it every Saturday. "

Abundance of leadership

Zimmerman heads into state as the sectional Poetry champion. Not only has she been a steady ribbon winner for the team throughout the year, but she's been the steady presence that her younger peers have needed.

Zimmerman can be found taking roll call on the bus each Saturday morning and motivating her teammates both in practice and on the ride to a meet.

"She has evolved as such a leader," Kranz said. "If you go back to when she joined as a sophomore, she was quiet. She was pretty inhibited, timid, and now, she commands the classroom. The kids seek her out. "

Yoslen Santana, a freshman who qualified for Informative and Extemporaneous finals this Saturday, credited Zimmerman for influencing him.

"She's motivated me," he said. "She's the motivator. She is like a cheerleader. We're on the bus and she just starts motivating everyone, wishing them luck. She gives us good luck pats. It makes the environment feel less intimidating."

Along with Poetry, Zimmerman qualified for Program Oral Interpretation.

Junior Jesus Ramirez-Padillo is one of the newcomers who have benefitted from the leadership Zimmerman and Harris provides.

Why did he join speech?

"I like to talk about anything," he said.

Ramirez-Padilla talked his way into two state final events: Declamation and US Extemporaneous.

"The beginning of the season I was confused," he said. "I didn't know what to do. I was lazy and I didn't know what was going on. But as I started getting into the season, I started to really enjoy the people I was around and going here and there to different competitions, seeing how I placed, hearing other people's pieces."

Ramirez-Padilla said giving a speech is nerve wracking. He described feeling as if his heart will beat out of his chest and his mouth will go dry.

"But I will try to get up there with as much confidence as I can," he said.

Despite the nerves, he highly recommended joining a speech team.

"I think more people should join speech, especially if they want to expand their knowledge about a certain issue or just present an issue that they know a lot about and want to share it with people across the state or across the world if you get that far," he said.

'Team is amazing'

Joining the four speech members in the state finals are Sofia Herrera, competing in US Extemporaneous and as an alternate in Drama. Trajan Skinner, Bault and Sanchez will compete in Radio and Justin Snay will be an alternate. Connor Gellinger qualified for state in Discussion and Saylor McClain will be an alternate. Cesar Martin-Acosta will compete in Impromptu. Janni Anaya and Aiden Snoeberger are competing in International Extemporaneous. Maddison Sell and Gracelyn Scott qualified for state in Original Performance and Samantha Baker qualified in Prose.

"This team is amazing," Zimmerman said. "And I feel like we work so well together. We help each other out. We really work well together. I feel like it's much more than a speech and debate team. We are a family and we work together and we work out problems."