Speech team will attend the JEFForensics Tournament on Jan. 18, according to speech team co-sponsor Jacleen Joiner.

“(It) is in Lafayette, Indiana,” she said. “This is our first competition where we’re actually going away; it’s not in the area. So we’re excited to have our first get away trip as a team.”

Joiner said the previously scheduled meet for Jan. 11 in La Porte cancelled due to weather and low interest, but students have been preparing for the next meet.

“I think everyone is pretty invested. Some of the girls were practicing over the break. I am really excited to see where we place in the competition,” Joiner said.

Elaina Xiong, speech team member and senior, said she will not be participating in the Lafayette competition due to scheduling difficulties. However, she said she is looking forward to future meets.

“I’m very excited about going to our upcoming speech meets, because they’re places that I’ve never been to,” she said. According to Xiong, speech team has attended competitions at different venues this year than in previous years.

“The competition will be different and I’ll get to see how schools outside of central Indiana compete,” Xiong said.

Joiner said she will be a judge at the upcoming competition, along with co-sponsor Anna Kaiser and a parent volunteer.

“I like judging because we get a chance to see the different kinds of speeches and how people convey those,” Joiner said. “And we have some kids who get really nervous, but I like the fact that the speech community as a whole is so dedicated. I’ve never seen that in something like speech or debate.

“Usually the kids are like ‘No, I don’t want to do that,’ but the kids are so dedicated to what they do. You can tell they invest a lot of time in finding those scripts, in practicing over and over.”