By Per Peterson
Three Tracy Area High School senior speech students have earned a trip to the 2022 Minnesota State Speech Tournament.
Kaylee Campbell (Great Speeches) earned the Section 3A championship at last weekend’s section meet in Marshall, and she will be joined at state by Annaka Hook, second in Informative; and Delaynie Meyer, second in Poetry.
This will be Campbell’s fourth straight appearance at state.
“Especially after competing at state virtually last year, I am so excited to be back in person competing, doing what I love while talking about something important to me,” said Campbell. “I could not have done it without my incredible team and coaches.”
In the Great Speeches category, speakers give another person’s speech for roughly the first part of their presentation, then analyze it in their own words to convey what makes it great.
“This year, I chose to analyze Kevin Breel’s Confessions of a Depressed Comic,” Campbell said. “Mental health is a cause that is really important to me, so I knew coming into this year that I wanted to give a speech focusing on that, as I have done in past years. I just started googling and came across Breel’s TedTalk. It immediately spoke to me; I knew I had to do it. It feels amazing to advance to the state level with a speech that is so close to my heart.”
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.