An entourage of 50 teammates and fans cheered two Perham High School speech competitors to titles at the speech tournament.
Taking first place honors in State Class A was David Tomporowski, in the Informative category.
He is only the second Perham speech student to win a state title in the 21 years that Sandra Weiser-Matthews has coached the team. The only previous state champ was Angela Refsland, a number of years ago.
Placing fifth, in the Drama category, was Allina McCrady.
Especially satisfying was the busload of fellow students and family members who traveled to the Twin Cities to offer moral support to the speech competitors, noted Weiser-Matthews. The fans helped dispel the common perception that speech isnt really a spectator sport.
ADVERTISEMENT
In total, 11 Perham students qualified for state after the Section 6-A tournament: Tomporowski, McCrady, Alicia Schmidt, Colman Silbernagel, Brandon Heimer, Diana Tastad, Luccas Wuebben, Jake Muszynski, Jessica Spanswick, Ginnele Brenk and Kacey Kachelmeyer.
Time was the focus of Tomporowskis championship presentation in the Informative category, where he discussed clock time and event time. Clock time is predominantly a western measure of time, where appointments, obligations and commitments are scheduled by the clock. In developing countries, time passes in a less structured form, by event rather than clock-driven.
Portrayals of Asian women, at various stages of life, were the basis of McCradys fifth place dramatic presentation.
The 2006 State Speech Tournament was held at Bloomington Jefferson High School April 21- 22.
The material chosen by competitors ranges from classic, great speeches by Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example; to the contemporary.
The material written by the competitors themselves always evokes interest, often in titles alone, such as Leah Banksons Missed It by a Casserole in Class A Creative Expression, or Diana Rognlies Our Festering Failure Infection in Class AA Original Oratory.
The tournament featured the top three qualifiers from each of eight Class A sections and from each of eight Class AA sections in 13 different speech categories.
The 2006 tournament qualifiers represent 155 high school teams - 94 Class A teams and 61 Class AA teams.
ADVERTISEMENT
Students from 331 Minnesota high schools participated in speech during the current school year on 217 Class A teams and 114 Class AA teams.
The categories included: 1) Serious Interpretation of Prose; 2) Serious Interpretation of Drama; 3) Serious Interpretation of Poetry; 4) Humorous Interpretation; 5) Storytelling; 6) Extemporaneous Reading; 7) Creative Expression; 8) Original Oratory; 9) Great Speeches; 10) Discussion; 11) Extemporaneous Speaking; 12) Informative Speaking; and 13) Duo Interpretation.
