Top talent descends on Valley for state tourney
By Denise Dick
BOARDMAN
About 900 students from across Ohio bring their dramatic, humorous and interpretive talents and their debate and persuasive skills to the Mahoning Valley this weekend.
The 88th Ohio High School Speech League State Tournament runs through today at Boardman and Canfield high schools. Competition began Friday.
Speech team members compete in 13 categories from Lincoln-Douglas and policy debate to humorous, dramatic, duo and oratorical interpretation.
Kaj Beeler, a Niles McKinley High School senior, competes in Dramatic Interpretation, where contestants take a dramatic play, book or story and develop and shorten it into a piece for the competition.
Kaj’s piece is called “Fire Dance,” by David Shaffer, and it’s about a drag queen who learns to dance with fire.
He’s been in speech all four years of high school but started in Humorous Interpretation as a freshman.
He switched to drama as a sophomore because, “Honestly, I was terrible at Humorous Interpretation,” he said.
His advancing to the state tournament, though, indicates he’s found his niche with drama.
The state contest is the culminating event for the speech and debate season that starts in October. Students must qualify to compete.
“I love it,” Kaj said. “You get up in front of people and get to be someone else. You get lost in it.”
In both Humorous Interpretation and Dramatic Interpretation, each contestant may portray multiple characters with different voices, postures and movements for each to convey emotion and demeanor. In Duo Interpretation, two students act out a cutting from a dramatic or humorous work and may portray more than one character each.
South Range High School junior Brant Rothbauer and freshman Troy Waliszewski are competing in that category.
Their humorous piece, “Twerp,” by Mark Goldblatt, tells the story of two boys — one strong, one wimpy — and their misadventures that include killing pigeons.
Brant has been in speech since his freshman year.
“At first my mom kind of forced me to do it,” he said, adding that she’s one of the team’s coaches.
But he grew to love it.
Troy joined because it sounded like something he would enjoy.
“It sounded fun — and it is fun,” he said.
Holly Toy, a South Range junior, competes in Oratorical Interpretation. In that category, speakers interpret the thoughts and emotions in a speech prepared by another writer.
Holly’s “Group Think About It” was written by Luke Eusebio, a competitor in last year’s contest. It’s about group think and the problems that arise from it, she said.
“It’s my favorite activity,” she said of speech. “It’s a lot of fun.”
All three South Range students say they also enjoy meeting new people and making friends from other schools.
Friday’s opening ceremonies presented the 2015 inductees into the OHSSL Hall of Fame.
Joan Williams, Ursuline High School’s speech coach, and Rich Fujimoto, coach from St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, are this year’s inductees.
Fujimoto has been St. Ignatius coach for 26 years, and his team members have gone on to star on Broadway and win Tony Awards.
Williams, who competed in speech while a student at Austintown Fitch, has been Ursuline’s coach for 24 years. She also teaches at the school. She’s had more than 200 state qualifiers during her tenure.
“I consider it a privilege and a pleasure to play a very small role in the beginning chapter of your lives,” she told her team members in her speech.