Cotter’s speech team has earned a Three Rivers conference championship and sent five competitors to the State meet as well.

The Cotter speech team has grown from rags to riches over the past two seasons, as the number of students participating has increased by over 40.  Besides introducing these new competitors, head coaches Deb Beckman and Amy French stepped in, and have reinvigorated the program.

The speech team not only won the Three Rivers meet, they dominated it.  Cotter scored 115 out of 266 possible points.

Moving on to the State level are Aidan Beckman, David French,  Hunter Ramsden, Henry Reilly and Gabe Tullis.

“I was really pleased with the results and it exceeded my expectations.  I loved watching the student reactions when they were on stage for awards.  So many had been close to placing at other meets and this was their time to shine,” stated co-head coach Deb Beckman.

Of the 13 Speech Categories, Cotter has 8 Conference Champions including:

• Gabe Tullis  in Creative Expression
• JJ Corn in Discussion
• Henry Reilly in Extemp Reading
• Steve Hadaway in Extemp Speaking
• Aidan Beckman in Great Speeches
• David French in Humorous
• Katie Wolfe in Poetry
• Noah French in Prose

Other winners included:

• Abbey Allen 5^th in Creative Expression
• Anne Galke 4^th in Drama
• Alex Walechka and Noah Nachtigal 3^rd in Duo
• Albert Oh and Victoria Shim 5^th in Duo
• Gabe Welch 5^th in Extemp Reading
• Nick Beranek 6^th in Extemp Reading
• Bryanna Meier 3^rd in Extemp Speaking
• Sam French 4^th in Extemp Speaking
• Viva Graff 2^nd in Great Speeches
• Tim Welch 3^rd in Great Speeches
• Hunter Ramsden 3^rd in Humorous
• Megan Zenke 5^th in Humorous
• Luke Broghammer : Honorable Mention in Humorous
• James Galke : 2^nd in Informative
• Connor Walechka: 3^rd in Informative
• Jen Beranek: 6^th in Informative
• Jacob French: 2^nd in Original Oratory
• Rita Row : 4^th in Poetry
• Maddie Walters: 2^nd in Prose
• Anna Engel: 3^rd in Prose
• Cecelia Welch: 3^rd in Storytelling

Co-coach Amy French holds high expectations for this speech team as time moves on: “The future looks very bright.  We are only losing a few seniors – and most of our stronger speakers are sophomores or younger. We hope to recruit more to the team so we can fill each category out.”