Competing In Fear Is A Freeport Tradition
If you’re like me, public speaking has never bothered you. The crowd of eyes watching was nothing to worry about. The responsibility of delivering whatever message you had didn’t cause you to sweat. You even reveled in the fact that you had a captive audience who had to listen to your words. In fact, you might have enjoyed it a little too much to the point that you were coaxed off stage before you were finished. Chances are though, you’re not like me.
Statistically, you probably put public speaking as one of your top 3 fears ranking somewhere between death and clowns. Just thinking about the bright lights and boos the crowd will certainly be sending your way makes your palms sweat. No, chances are, you’re not like me, or the friends that I have been working with for 14 years.
Since I was 16 years old, my winter Saturdays start at about 4:00 so that I can put on my suit, have a quick bite, brew a cup of coffee, (tea in my more recent years,) and get to a cold school bus before it takes off for some high school 2 hours away. As I step on the bus, more than 20 pairs of focused eyes look at me. The eyes belong to high school students who are also in suits, have also given up their Saturday, and are heading into battle. I don’t know anyone who is afraid to play basketball or tennis, but I know plenty of people who are terrified of public speaking. These students simply laugh in the face of that terror that would send many grown men running for the hills. These students are the speech team.
During our 2 hour ride, some of these speakers are repeating 8 minutes of memorized drama making sure every emotion is where it should be. Other students are rewriting part of the 8 minute persuasive piece they researched themselves. There are a few pockets of duos because they have chosen one of the tandem events. Still others are reviewing the latest CNN polls because when they draw their topic later that day, they will only have 45 minutes to write a 6 minute current event argument that must cite sources. There are 14 different events in speech and most of these students are competing in more than 1 of them. Competing at a high level that has come to be expected of my home team, Freeport.
Since the first season, 1940-1941, Freeport Speech has been building a competitive reputation for itself in the I.H.S.A. It’s important to point out that that reputation is among all Illinois schools that field a speech team. There are no divisions in speech so every team is competing against every other team in the state. I’m proud to say both as a competitor and coach that the Freeport Speech Team is consistently found near the top and we’re heading there again.
Starting February 4th at 8:00, Freeport will start our 76th trip to the state tournament with the regional tournament hosted at Freeport High School, public welcome. 2 days before, on February 2nd at 7:00 p.m. in room 228 at Freeport High School the Freeport regional team will be putting on an exhibition featuring 11 of our 14 events. For a suggested donation of $3, you can see what all The Buzz is about.
In a time when everyone from NFL referees to our elected officials can’t string more than 2 grammatically correct sentences together, come see some of the most articulate high school students you’ve ever encountered take part in a Freeport tradition that gets stronger every year. As a friend is fond of saying, “speech changes lives.” I know it did for me.
