Wayne State College hosted 18 high school speech teams for a competition on Saturday, Feb. 8.
The competition was hosted by Dwaine Spieker, the Wayne High School speech coach, with the assistance of WSC speech coach Jonathan Laner. This is the seventh year that the competition has been held at WSC.
Spieker said he got the idea to host a meet at the college in the spring of 2018, after being encouraged to find a way to raise funds for the high school speech team.
“I happened to be driving by Wayne State, one day and it just hit me, ‘Why don’t I see if I could host a meet-up here?'” Spieker said. “That was in the spring of 2018. I talked to the previous dean, Yasuko Taoka, about the possibility of it. She was very open to it, and Wayne State has always been very receptive to any kind of high school event. So, to my great happiness, they agreed, and we have had a meet there ever since.”
Spieker said that the biggest advantage of hosting the meet on campus is the size.
“For a long time, Wayne High School, we didn’t have enough rooms available to host a large-scale speech meet that would actually make money,” Spieker said.
Spieker went on to explain that the size of the campus also allows them to add an extra round to the competition, something previously unique to the state tournament.
“The format of the state tournament is 3 rounds and finals,” Spieker said. “Kids just don’t have that ability to get that feel for what state might feel like until they get there, and I think that puts them at a mild disadvantage when they get to state. I want to give them that experience here.”
AJ Johnson, a speech coach at Hartington-Newcastle High School, said bringing his team to this event is beneficial.
“It’s the only time during the whole season that we get to experience three rounds and finals, which is the format of state,” Johnson said. “We get to see some teams that we never usually see, so it’s good to get that level of competition. It’s a good experience for us.”
Hartington-Newcastle High School placed runner-up at the competition.
Spieker added that he is very appreciative of both Wayne State College and Jonathan Laner for allowing him to hold this competition on campus.
“I appreciate everything Wayne State has to offer, and I hope we can keep doing this for a long time.” Spieker said.
The Wayne High School and Hartington-Newcastle High School teams will both compete again on Saturday, Feb. 15 at the Wausa High School Speech Invite.
