Speech team will be advancing to State on March 20 at Fishers High School, according to speech team sponsor John Love. Love said that 14 students from the team will be participating in the State meet.

“There are seven sectionals around the state. The students have to qualify and the top seven (schools) get to go to state. There are usually around 49 kids in each event,” Love said.

At the same time, few students are preparing for the district meets taking place this weekend. Love said if the team qualifies, it gets to advance to Nationals.

Love said preparation for both meets is the same procedure as earlier meets.

“Students prepare individually. Sometimes they practice by themselves, sometimes they come in to work with me. It differs from kid to kid,” Love said.

Evelyn Forbes, speech team member and senior, will be participating in the declamation event at the State meet. Forbes said practice and research is key to being successful at any speech meet.

Love said he is impressed with the team this year. Love said, “The kids are doing very well this year. We placed third in Sectionals. We have more kids going to State this year than we had last year. I’m impressed with them.” By Hera Ashraf <[email protected]>