ABOVE: Across all grade and experience levels, Fairmont Speech has been striving to improve on its impressive 2024 campaign. First row, from left: Megan Wheeler (11), Grace Simpson (12), Oliver Thedens (12), Dominick Lund-May (12), Isaac Thomas (12), Alayna Haefner (12), Zoey Tasseff (12), Bel Lutterman (11). Second row, from left: Gabbie Thoeny (10), Annie Reyelts (10), Reyna Juhl (8), Bella Coan (9), Marley Perkins (7), Sophia Streit (8), Allie Streit (10), Norah Heille (10), Collin Reyelts (7), Jazzleene Lopez (9). Thurd row, from left: Erin Spencer (9), Evan Reyelts (9), Addie Lintelman (7), Michelle Esquivel (9), Georgia Werre (8), Hannah Gries (8), Leon Yang (10), Cooper Gudahl (11), Levi Loughmiller (11). Not Pictured: Molly Johnson (10), Isabelle Soelter (7), Annabelle Watson (7), and Gwen Edman (7). Photo courtesy of Kathleen Walker.

FAIRMONT – Coming off a successful 2024 season, Fairmont Speech is continuing to hone its craft.

Senior member Oliver Thedens said there are takeaways from last year they are applying this year.

“We’re hoping to match that with our team energy,” he said. “I think we wanted to match last year and do it better.”

The team overall feels it is doing a great job of meeting that example as it reaches the halfway point of the season. Speech Coach Kathleen Walker said this is split between veterans and novices, as the novices come in later in the season.

“Our first competition was the first Saturday after the holiday break in 2025,” she said. “Anywhere from 10 to 20 kids try those out. Now we’re hitting our over 30 threshold with kids we’re bringing to tournaments. We’re in our local circuit right now in Mankato. That gives the young kids an opportunity to go to a smaller meet.”

From here, the road gets more challenging. National qualifiers are in two weeks, sections and state competitions in April and national competitions in May and June.

Walker said Speech competitions are an all-day affair.

“You use the rooms for rounds and have judges go into a room every round,” she said. “There are three rounds and if you final, you get to do your speech again and an award ceremony. From 9 a.m. to about 4 p.m. it’s all day long in the high school.”

There are 13 different categories students can choose from, and preparation can differ drastically between them.

Senior Dominick Lund-May does extemporaneous speaking, where he is given three topics per round and only 30 minutes to research all three before giving a seven-minute speech. He said the variety of options, with competitions staked in skills like humor, poetry, politics and teamwork, means there’s something for everyone.

“It’s whatever you want to do in speech,” Lund-May said. “That’s the promise the Fairmont team makes. You get to do whatever you’re interested in. I’m interested in politics, and I like doing things quickly.”

For senior competitors like Lund-May, the realization this is their last chance has set in. For him, it’s an opportunity to put the pedal to the metal.

“There’s a sense among everyone that if this is my last year, I’m going to do the absolute best that I can,” he said. “I’m also going to try and make as much of an impact on everybody else as possible. From my own experience, I’ve worked as hard as I was last year and I’ve struggled to drive myself to new heights and help out those around me more than I had previously.”

Mentorship is also a key point of emphasis for the speech team. Walker said she has seen the senior students bring this trait in spades every year.

“When leaders show young kids doing speech is about a family of people who are going to motivate you to be a confident public speaker, it makes you want to give back,” she said. “This is my 10th year coaching and every single year I wonder how this group of seniors will top last year. They always do, because every single year they give back what they received.”

Doing well and potentially winning a section competition, like Zoey Tasseff did last year, or going even further and placing at state or nationals is a central individual goal everyone is chasing. For Lund-May, his goal is to see as much personal and team growth as possible.

“To be able to look at myself overall and say I was better than last season,” he said. “To see among all the teammates in my category, I helped them do better than their last season.”

Fairmont will be hosting a speech tournament at Fairmont High School on March 22, and the public is invited to attend.