In Original Oratory, a 10-minute persuasive speech written by the competitors ahead of time is required for this event. Topics can range from societal issues to personal growth, and must consist of logic, evidence and emotion.

“I always write my speeches over the summer, [and] our first Invitational, Jack Howe, is where I get feedback,” Mamilapally said. “This tournament gives you very good advice so that when you come back in December, you can do well in the league tournaments. My topic was about the immorality of using the phrase forgive and forget. I always feel like we use that phrase as an excuse instead of actually holding people accountable, so my whole speech was about how you should forgive people, but you must never forget what has happened to you.”

As an experienced speaker she felt confident about qualifying for states.  

“I’ve competed in this league for four years, so my main focus this year was on Nationals,” Mamilapally said. “Over the past three years, I’ve gotten used to how the league works and what exactly I need to have in my speech to make sure that I make it to states every time.”

Extemporaneous Speaking (Extemp) is an event specifically focused on political and global topics. From learning their topic at the tournament before the round, to having 30 minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech, Extemp requires immense precision and quick thinking. 

“Throughout the tournament, I spent most of my prep time doing research, trying to pull off statistics and quotes from the internet,” Jeurkar said. “A lot of the speech does have to be made up on the spot, but the more you do it, the more confident you get. I try to keep a lot of statistics in my speech. The numbers really stand out to the judges, and they give you some really concrete evidence to base your speech around.”

The timing of the tournament rounds varied across certain events, and for Jeurkar, finding out she qualified early was a “nice surprise.”

“My event was smaller, so there were only enough people to break to finals,” Jeurkar said. “But then for bigger events, they broke to semifinals, and then after that round, they went on to finals. I was done with both of my events while other events were still having finals or having semi finals, so I was able to find out I qualified hours before the awards.”

Original advocacy is an event based heavily on memorization. This 10-minute speech is followed by legislation that would be proposed to Congress on how to solve the issue. It requires intense preparation and knowledge of the topic.

“I began preparing about a month in advance, which honestly was not enough time for me,”  Bi said. “I know people [who] have been working on their speeches for the whole year. Memorizing a 10-minute long speech is not an easy feat, so I would just go over it in my head constantly and practice out loud to myself.”

As a consistent competitor in both speech and debate, Bi finds enjoyment in guiding new members. 

“[I joined] speech during my sophomore year of high school because I was previously on the debate team and wanted to be on both of them,” Bi said. “I decided to stick with [speech] because I really enjoyed the team. I was also made a mentor this year, so I teach the novices, who are the first years of speech, all about the different events and how to compete.”

Declamation is a speech event in which a speaker delivers and interprets an speech originally written and performed by someone else. Declamation also includes a short introduction explaining the speech they chose and why they decided to perform it.

“I spoke on weightlifting for women,” Chaudhary said. “Everyone’s assigned a room 30-minutes before the round actually starts. You have a while to practice, and when it gets to your round, the [judges] call everyone up one by one, and you present your speech for around 10 minutes.” 

Presenting a memorized speech in front of judges and an audience can be very nerve-racking. Techniques to calm nerves are essential for a successful performance.

“I try not to think before giving a speech, I just try to relax and clear my mind,” Chaudhary said. “At a tournament, what makes me feel better is knowing I’m prepared. I’ll bring a print out of my speech and read through it, so I feel better. And if I’m still feeling nervous, I’ll take a few deep breaths telling myself everything’s okay, and whatever happens, life will go on.”

Humorous Interpretation is designed to showcase the competitor’s comedic ability. It consists of a fully memorized, 10-minute speech cut from a published literary work, and in some cases, by a comedian. As props are not allowed, the speech heavily focuses on the performers’ stage presence through their body, tone and movements.

“I spoke on a stint of comedy by the comedian Michael McIntyre, and it was about the difficulties of parenting,” Brahmandam said.“I was trying to appeal to the judges during my speech. I practice it with movement a lot. Memorizing usually comes easier to me, so it’s more just movement and what I do with my body.”

However, preparation is not the only part of the experience. Dealing with the pressure of competition can be equally important.

“I don’t feel that nervous before speeches, because I don’t worry too much about speech and debate that much,” Brahmandam said “I don’t take it too seriously. But usually for me, the nerves start coming after the round. When I see other people also do well, it can get a little scary.”

Informative is one of the only events in the competition where props are allowed. Competitors must be interactive with boards and other items while presenting their speech. This 10-minute speech must be memorized and have the ability to inform the listener on the topic rather than persuade them to believe a certain idea.

“I talked about the science behind superstitions and their effects on biology and their societal effects,” Peripydi said. 

The qualification process is extremely competitive, but despite this, Peripydi believes her efforts paid off. 

“I was really happy [to qualify,] but I’m also really nervous and terrified to go to states,” Peripydi said. “I do feel like the effort that I put in at the beginning of the year really made a difference.” 

Dramatic Interpretation is one of the most unique events in speech, as it takes an existing piece of media and trims it down into a theatrical 10-minute speech. The speech leans more towards theatre-esque, consisting of acting and storytelling, which is different  to delivering a traditional speech. 

“My piece was “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe,” Tam said. “Basically, I was reenacting and acting that out. There was no really specific topic. It was mainly bringing the story to life.” 

As this is Tam’s first year on the speech team for OPHS, qualifying for states came as both a surprise and an exciting opportunity.

“I kind of went for fun, because I’m a freshman, and didn’t expect it to [qualify], because a lot of people in my event [who qualified] were upper classmen, but when I qualified I thought it was pretty cool,” Tam said. “I didn’t do as well as I hoped for in the final rankings, but I was pretty happy that I was given another chance to go compete and experience what states is like.”