LaRue Little Leaguers learn the ins and outs of competitive speech

The Little League speech organization called Speak Out, hosted its first speech competition Oct. 15 at Hodgenville Elementary School. Twenty-four students from Hodgenville Elementary and Abraham Lincoln Elementary competed to earn top spots in three events: storytelling, poetry and solo acting.

Little League speech winners from Abraham Lincoln Elementary School are, from left, Skylar Hornback, Hayley Cecil, Jordan Brock, Madison Eads, Breea Kirkpatrick and Zoe Blair.

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The top three students in each event earned trophies and an overall Sweepstakes trophy was awarded to the school that earned the most points based on how well the students performed throughout the tournament.

The elementary students have been working on shortened versions of the same kinds of pieces that the high school students do during varsity competitions. For the past two months, high school speech students have worked with the fourth and fifth graders to prepare them for competition. The older students have helped the younger students cut pieces, gone over acting techniques, and coached the actual performances during that time. The high school students have volunteered their time every Tuesday and Thursday since August to help prepare the elementary students for this first competition.

There are three little league teams that represent the two schools, with eight students on each team. Representing ALES are the Jabber Jawz and the Speakin’ Lincolns, and representing HES is the team Awesome Os. Each team had winners in the three competitive categories.

In Storytelling, first place went to Hayley Cecil from the Speakin’ Lincolns, second place to Alexia Trumbo from the Awesome Os, and third place to Madison Eads from the Jabber Jawz; Poetry, first place went to Breea Kirkpatrick from Jabber Jawz, second to Skyler Hornback from Speakin’ Lincolns, and third to Zoë Blair from the Jabber Jawz. solo, first place went to Jordan Brock from Jabber Jawz, second to Elena Cecil from Awesome Os and third to Mackenzie Turner also from the Awesome Os. The overall team trophy went to the Jabber Jawz from ALES.

Katy Cecil and Kim Mather, the LCHS speech coaches, have administered the program along with the help of Cynthia Patterson at ALES, but the children have been primarily coached by the high school team members Jabber Jawz are coached by Chelsea Blair, Cody Thompson, David Cruse, and Travis Hornback. Speakin’ Lincolns are coached by Mac Blair, Shelby Rogers and Spenser Reed. The Awesome Os are coached by Timmy Gibson, Ian Mather, Angelia Whitlock, Jeshua Logsdon, and Sarah Mortensen.

The next competition will be held at 5 p.m. Nov. 19 at ALES. Several prominent community members are slated to judge the competition, including Tony Simon, co-owner of Sav-A-Lot; Paula Varney, owner of Paula’s Hot Biscuit; the Rev. Mike Tobin, pastor of Our Lady of Mercy; Marty Lee, a student-pastor at First Baptist Church and project manager at Dow Corning; Dale Morris, county attorney; and Sam Sanders, LaRue County superintendent.