“Precious, it’s almost here. I want you to push, you hear me Mami, when that pain hits you again push, Preshecita. Push.”

This is just a taste of the powerful pieces that the SJHS speech team will be presenting this year. The speech team opened its season on October 17, 2009,at a tournament held at Acorn Community High School.

The results from first tournament were as follows: in Junior Varsity Oral Interpretation, Sierra Armstrong came in first, Tasha Joachim second, Tyler Perez third, Krystal Maldonado fourth, Crystal Santos fifth, Amanda Andrew sixth and Makisha Telfort eighth place. In Varsity Oral Interpretation,Shiovahn Gustave came in second, Shyan Lovell fourth and Judwina Chery placed sixth. In Declamation, Emmanuela Vaught took second and Aharisi Bonner took sixth.

After the first competition of the year, the experienced girls are no longer one bit timid;they are accustomed to it. However the new girls are most definitely frightened. The speech team has been performing for over ten years, with many skillful and proficient students entering the national championships.

The talented man who started it all is Speech Coach David Risley. Mr. Risley challenges his students; he expects the most enthusiastic input from them. David pushes his students so they can have a thunderous crowd and have some accomplishments for life.

This year the speech team has had more people join than previous years.

Junior Shyan Lovell said she was pushed by her mom to join. She first joined when she was a freshman, just to try something new.

“When I first joined I didn’t think it was going to be a challenge because I had that eagerness within me already,” she said. “People always knew me as ‘dramatic Shyan.’( My expectations this year is to make it number one to nationals and for my team.”)

The girls are familiar with the annual trips to Albany for states,but they are even more excited about their trip to Nebraska for Nationals.