At the Heritage Conference Impromptu Speech contest held at the Homer-Center High School, Ligonier Valley was able to repeat in a very close competition.
By one point, Ligonier Valley was able to win the contest over West Shamokin, who had 283 points. Marion Center placed third with 276 points.
Impromptu speech competitions place the students under pressure to try and create a speech based on one of four topics that the students are not privy to in advance. Once the topics are announced and selected, the students will then have five minutes to prepare their speeches for delivery. The difficulty of the competition is what excites senior Zach Peltz-Palko, who was named the competition’s MVP.
The four topics were two quotes and two current events topics. The current event topic asked students to argue for or against school staff being armed with guns. The second current events topic dealt with the recent school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and asked the students to choose a cause to advocate for, and talk about why they chose that cause and how would they gather supporters. The two quotes were a quote from Scottish Author Walter Scott and American poet Maya Angelou.
Other team members included Audrey Ann Spiedel, Sidney Damon, and Isabella Wentzel. Alternates included Brinn Barr and Gunner Elliott.
You can meet the winning team in a video on our facebook page.
