Schools
A Look at Orono High School's 2013 Speech Team
Head coach Julie McMerty and captain Eva Martinuzzi talk about reclaiming wins at the Wright County Conference tournament.
Orono's speech team has a record size due to a new program started at the middle school and led by seventh-grade English teacher, Katie Stanley.
With more than 50 students participating in speech this year, the four captains—juniors Eva Martinuzzi and Maddie Parrott and seniors Sam Murray and Preston Schlueter—along with head coach Julie McMerty have had their hands full.
The captains aren’t the only ones to look out for this year. Keep your eyes open for last year’s state qualifiers Jesse Bissen in storytelling and duo interpretation and Jack Ellis in prose, poetry and humor.
The traveling team will be heading to Marshall for the Schwans Tournament and to Boston for the Harvard Invitational. The team looks forward to these competitive tournaments as well as reclaiming their wins at the Wright County Conference and Park Cottage Grove tournaments.
“We want to become a unified team, so we are working on group mentoring, improving as a team, being prepared,” said Martinuzzi.
The team’s first tournament is at Chanhassen High School on Jan. 26.
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Sydney Reiners is a student at Orono High School