The Callaway speech team ended their tremendous season with a rare accomplishment for the school - a district runner-up team plaque, and an appearance at the state meet. On March 28, eight Callaway High School students were given an escort out of town on their way to Kearney to represent their school in the state competition.

The team is under the leadership of first-year speech coach Courtney Espinosa, who teaches English language arts for grades 9-12. She also helps with One Act.

“In high school, I was very active in speech and One Act, and my bachelor’s degree is actually in tech theater,” Espinosa explained. “I did some theater work for a few years, and One Act and speech kind of coordinate so I’ve always really loved that.”

Espinosa grew up in Hampton and attended Chadron State College. She just earned her teaching degree in December 2024 through the transitional mentor/ mentee program. “So now I am a full-fledged teacher,” she laughed.

This year’s speech team has 12 members, and Espinosa said almost every student participates in at least two events. She said she was excited to see the amount of improvement in her speakers throughout the season, and they peaked at the perfect time.

“Our humorous prose kids were placing, and our serious prose girls were placing here and there. At conference is where we got some placings and that was a really good morale boost because we were going to meets with all of these huge schools like North Platte, Gothenburg, and Scottsbluff. We were just kind of

Cont. PAGE 7: Speech Team shoved under the rug a little bit and weren’t medaling, and the kids were feeling a little defeated,” said Espinosa. “But they were still doing really good, and I just kept telling them that conference and districts are the only ones that matter. So when we got to conference and everybody was medaling, they started to realize how good they were when they competed against other schools our size. That’s when they really started to shine.

“Districts was amazing!,” she continued. “As the kids started making the top three their teammates were celebrating in the stands. It was so cool to see them supporting each other like that.”

Callaway students qualified eight students for state in nine events; two humorous prose, two serious prose, OID (Oral Interpretation of Drama), a duet acting, and a poetry. “It’s awesome to be able to take that many the first year…and I have no seniors!” Espinosa shared with excitement. High School Principal Heath Birkel noted that this was the highest number of state qualifiers the school has seen in recent years.

Espinosa hopes that seeing the success of this year’s team will inspire more kids to try speech next year. “I made a deal with the freshmen that if they joined the team they had to try it for three meets, and if they really hated it they could quit.

They pretty much all stayed. They found their niches and just went with it - and once they found what they really liked they really enjoyed it.”

Espinosa shared that many of her students started out the season afraid to speak in front of anyone. Public speaking, after all, is listed as the number one phobia. However, by the end of the season, she said most of the kids had done a complete 180. “Now they want people there - they want to feel that energy in the room,” she said. “It’s so interesting to see how some of these kids hardly ever talk, but then you give them a speech and they just go!”

None of this year's district medalists had ever been to the state meet. “Some of them were really close last year, like in fourth or fifth place, but they never made it. So this is their first time, and it’s really cool for me to experience,” said Espinosa.

The Class D state qualifiers were: OID - Chenney Dishman, Tiersa Johnson, and Brayden Keeney Duet - Olivia Fitzgerald and Chenney Dishman Serious Prose - Ashley Denney, Taryn Rohrbough Humorous Prose - Chenney Dishman, Braxton Anderson Poetry - Kaygan Witthuhn Each event had two preliminary rounds, and then finals for those who qualified.

Each preliminary round has only one judge, and the final rounds have two judges.

While none of the Callaway entries made the final rounds, Espinosa said she was extremely proud of their performances and is already looking forward to next season.