CJI Hawks speech team competes at first speech meet of 2020-21

By Rhonda Petersen

CJI speech coach

The 2020-2021 CJI Speech season is off to a great start.

CJI Hawks Speech Team fielded four competitors at the Belfry Class B/C Invitational Saturday.

This year, due to COVID-19, the speech and drama season got off to a delayed start with the first meet being postponed for more than a month.

This year all MHSA speech and drama meets will be conducted online using the National Speech and Debate Association’s online platform NSDA Campus.

CJI’s Speech team was forced to compete from home since the school remained closed to students.

The Hawks competed against 29 other schools including 17 Class B Schools and 12 Class C Schools.

Veteran competitors Cain Cole and Emma Wickum, both four-year speech participants, led the way for the Hawks, finishing second in memorized public address and extemporaneous speaking, respectively. Cole and Wickum were just points out of first place in their events.

The other two team members, Martin Fulbright and Azeria McIntosh, competed for the first time Saturday. Fulbright finished fifth in informative speaking and McIntosh broke into semi-finals in a very competitive field in spontaneous oral interpretation of literature.

As a team of four, the CJI Hawks finished fourth out of 13 Class C schools at the meet with 22 points. Only 8 points separated the top 4 schools.

The Hawks next compete at the Red Lodge Invitational Saturday, Dec. 12.

The CJI Speech team is still looking for people interested in judging speech and drama events from the comfort of their homes. People interested in judging should contact Coach Rhonda Petersen by email at [email protected] .