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Austintown student talks a good game
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Neigbors | Shaiyla Hakeem.John Mazzucco (left) is the speech coach for Austintown senior Nicole Cirbus who holds the title of state champion in oratorical interpretation. She joined the speech team three years ago and has competed at the state level each year.
By SHAIYLA HAKEEM
Annunciation and professionalism are the rules to the competitive sport of speech and Austintown senior Nicole Cirbus has mastered them.
Cirbus has been named as Ohio School Speech League’s state champion in Oratorical Interpretation. The state tournament was held at Laural High School in Cleveland from March 4 through 6. Twenty-four students from Fitch advanced to the state competition. Cirbus was the only one who made it to the final round, ultimately winning the title of state champion.
Joining the speech club as a sophomore, Cirbus naturally excelled at the sport. She competed at the state level each year as a part of the speech team placing third at state as a junior.
Oratorical interpretation requires the memorization of a speech written by another person and performing it in front of judges. After much thought and discussion with her speech coach, she chose a speech written by a former high school student titled “Drink Your Milk.”
“It all about the economy and the government and how we are greedy. It just really relates to the time we are in now,” Cirbus said.
Speech season begins in early October and continues through late March. It involves practicing with the head coach as well as practicing during personal time. The season consists of 10 tournaments which Cirbus says is exhausting.
“It’s the longest competitive season of any sport,” she said.
Each school sends its best competitors to a district competition which determines who will make it to the state tournament. The state competition involves four preliminary rounds of speech presentations where half of the competitors are eliminated each round.
Cirbus says her favorite aspect of the speech team is the competitions because it is completely different from anything she has ever done.
“It’s not a physical competition, you have to present yourself in way that other sports don’t require you to,” she said. “You have to look professional and act professional and are judged on your performance.”
John Mazzucco has coached speech for more than 35 years and Cirbus is the eighth state champion he has mentored. He said of all his speech students, Cirbus is by far the hardest working. He recruited Cirbus from an honors English class he taught her freshman year.
“She has a beautiful speaking voice, but the coup de gras was that she’s a martial arts competitor,” Mazzucco said. “I figured if she could bring that kind of power to the speech competition, we could put it to good use.”
After graduation, Cirbus plans to attend Bowling Green State University studying Health Sciences for pre-physical training. She then looks to attend Old Dominion University in Virginia for a graduate degree in hopes of landing a career working with military veterans in the spinal ward of the North Oak Hospital in Hammond, La.
“I guess we will see what happens!” said Cirbus.