Monroe County has proven to have a remarkable collection of young public speakers over the past few months, with students from Columbia earning respect with a tremendously strong first year.

With a much longer history, the Waterloo High School Speech Team concluded its latest season by sending several students to state, marking another stellar year for the program.

WHS English teacher John Rickert serves as the team’s coach. He’s got quite the history with the team, having participated in speech back when he was a freshman at WHS in 1998.

Rickert went on to serve as a speech judge before coming to WHS as an assistant coach and ultimately coming to lead the team.

He spoke about the great variety in speech performances. Students have the chance to participate in over a dozen different events, though a great amount of work goes into the season whether a student is performing an impromptu speech or is part of a group conducting a performance in the round.

The season stretching from late October to early March, Rickert remarked on how grueling the experience can be for a student without a strong team to back them up.

“Not only do students have to prepare whatever type of speech they wanna give, but they also have to edit those speeches throughout the course of the season, they have to have peer practices in which they help one another out,” Rickert said. “Of all the things we do, I think that’s one of the most important ones, being a good teammate, helping each other along the way.”

He further commented on the elements of speech that have kept him interested in the program for nearly 30 years, noting how unique it is among other extracurricular activities.

“It’s an activity that lets students who might otherwise not be heard use their voice,” Rickert said. “They not only use their voice, but they do so in a way that can, in some capacities, institute change. A lot of times we get wrapped up in the scoring and the numbers and that sort of thing, but at the end of the day, the skills that these students are learning are things that I don’t think you can get in any other club or activity. They are exponentially beneficial in life.”

With some strong seasons in the team’s history, this proved to be yet another successful year in Waterloo speech.

Rickert remarked on the team’s undefeated streak in this year’s regular season tournaments, an accolade the team has earned in three previous years as well.

WHS speech students also pushed to win a regional title and had 12 students in the top 25 of all Southern Illinois speech students – that group ranging all the way from Springfield to Harrisburg.

“We currently have one, and I think more will follow, National Speech and Debate Association Academic All-Americans on the team,” Rickert said. “There’s a lot of accolades that this team has accomplished this year.”

Waterloo also had some fine showings at state, with Sydney Barringer placing 18th in dramatic interpretation, Noah Lohman and Wyatt Hansel placing 8th in humorous duet acting, Hansel placing 18th in humorous interpretation, Cayla Zavorka placing 10th in informative speaking and 11th in original oratory, Corinne Nolte placing 19th in oratorical declamation, Liam Martin placing 13th in original comedy and Connor Kleinschmidt placing 17th in special occasion speaking.

Among the students who performed at state, Sydney Kuergeleis had a particularly impressive showing as she placed 5th in impromptu speaking.

Rickert commended her as well as some of the other older students for their leadership among the team.

“One of the reasons that I like coaching here, other than the fact that I went to high school here, is that there are a lot of high-caliber character individuals on this team,” Rickert said. “We have a bunch of great leaders, but they really look out for one another. I think that, to me, is paramount. And Sydney is no exception there. She’s been leading in that capacity for the last two years, teaching kids how to do extemporaneous speaking, impromptu speaking and proving to be a mentor in that capacity.”

Kuergeleis offered some of her own thoughts on the speech team, recalling how she first joined her freshman year on a whim.

“I was really quiet as a kid,” Kuergeleis said. “Even in middle school, I never really said much, and I was never a very outgoing or outspoken person. Joining the speech team was kind of a leap of faith for me, kind of impulsive.”

She echoed much of the sentiments Rickert expressed, remarking on how important teamwork and peer relationships can be on the speech team.

While Kuergeleis noted the importance of support from her fellow WHS students, she also mentioned the solidarity among students from Southern Illinois, with large speech competitions often being dominated by students from larger schools in Chicago.

“I think those connections and having so many people who are in the same boat as you and they’re just there to uplift you and support you,” Kuergeleis said. “Everybody’s already cheering each other on.”

She voiced her appreciation for Rickert, the team and district administration for all the support.

She further expressed her pride and joy in being able to perform so well at state her senior year.

“I never imagined that I would find myself in a state final one day, but I’ve put a lot of work into speech over the last four years, so it really meant a lot to see my name on that poster when they dropped them, and it meant a lot to have all my teammates come out to support me,” Kuergeleis said.

Speaking on what makes speech special, Kuergeleis spoke about how it helps build several important skills in students who participate, mainly their ability to role with the punches  and maintain their confidence when they encounter criticism or pushback, whether its in speech or something else entirely.

Rickert also noted the emotional resilience that speech can helped build in students.

“I think being able to overcome adversity and defeat… Something I try to tell students all the time, when you’re playing basketball, the ball either goes in the hoop or it doesn’t go in the hoop,” Rickert said. “Nobody is sitting there scoring you on how the ball goes in the hoop. So the subjective nature of what we do each week sort of lends itself to some setbacks and to some criticisms, and I think, for us, learning how to deal with criticism and setbacks and not being deterred by it, being the best version of yourself that you can be, I think those are all incredible life skills that I’m not sure other activities can provide.”