(By Speech Coach Patricia Marks) We started out this season with one huge goal: Bringing home a trophy at state. We have worked so hard this year, striving to improve from week to week. The hard word and dedication that the students have shown all year long has been remarkable. To watch the students grow year to year is so heartwarming.
State competition is such an emotional experience. This meet has three rounds and finals rather than the two rounds and finals we compete with at regular meets. This is truly an exhausting experience as students who were triple entered (Donovan and Meagan) performed nine times before the final round was posted.
Waiting for the finals to appear on the screen is so nerve wracking as you either get to perform your speech one last time or your season just came to an end. Having eight of our 10 events headed to finals, the students knew we were sitting in a good position to win a team trophy. We still knew that the one final performance was still needed.
Everyone went out and gave it their all! Osmond won the state championship in Class D.
Overall Team Placings: First place — Osmond: 128 Points Second place — Chambers: 92 Points Third place — O’Neill St. Mary’s: 80 Points Fourth place — High Plains Community: 72 Points Fifth place — Stuart: 66 Points High school Principal Kurt Polt said that this is the first NSAA-sanctioned championship that Osmond has won as a school.
Final State Placings were: Meagan Wagner: Serious Prose — Children of a Lesser God by Mark Medoff, third. Meagan worked exceptionally hard as part of her speech was in sign language. Meagan learned sign language to speak as well as learning the dialogue of her speech to share the story of a couple where the wife is deaf and the husband is hearing.
Donovan Heiman: Entertainment — Time Optimism, second. Donovan wrote his own entertaining speech about being a time optimist and how it can affect your life. Donovan also created a story book and visual aids to go along with his speech..
Erin Aschoff: POI - Trust Me, fourth. Erin pieced together different genres including poetry, Reader’s Digest stories, short story, and a Ted Talk in order to call others to trust in one another. In her program, each selection was portrayed with a different character.
Jade Halsey: Informative - Slang, third. Jade wrote her own informative speech and created her own visual aids to share the history of how slang has come to be, how it has evolved over time, and how it impacts our lives now.
Piper Hoffman: Persuasive — Sleep, second. Piper wrote her own persuasive speech to show how the lack of sleep is negatively affecting our lives, how our sleep has changed over time, and finally steps that we can take to improve our own sleep.
Kaleigh Miller: Poetry - Defining Your Worth, sixth. Kaleigh pieced together different poems encouraging others to remember their own worth.
OHS SPEECH TEAM BRINGS HOME STATE CHAMPIONSHIP To portray the message, each poem was given a unique character to share the poem.
Ava Reikofski: Extemporaneous, first. Extemporaneous is a unique event where you are given one hour for each round to write a speech and prepare to give the speech. At the beginning of the prep time, three topics are drawn by the competitor and they are able to pick the one from these choices to write about. Each round will have a different topic drawn to write about. At State, Ava wrote four different speeches throughout the day for a total of four hours writing and preparing throughout the day.
Meagan Wagner and Donovan Heiman: Duet — Crushed by Don Zolidis, third. In duet, a team of two is able to use one table and two chairs to help as a script is acted out. Meagan and Donovan played multiple characters as they portrayed a fairy godmother visiting a young videogame-obsessed boy to share dating advice.
Other Competitors at state were: Justin Rohloff: Humorous Prose - Bursting by Andy Griffiths, ninth.
Justin used multiple voices and characters to portray a boy who desperately needs to use the restroom while at the shopping mall only to find out it was all a dream.
Meagan Wagner, Erin Aschoff, Kaleigh Miller, and Donovan Heiman: OID — Bang Bang You’re Dead by William Mastriomone, seventh - This group was able to use boxes to stage the story of a school shooter who is haunted by his actions.
When the team arrived back home on Saturday night around 11:45 p.m., they were escorted back into town by the fire trucks and police car. People lined the street to cheer on the students as we made our way to school.
To say I am proud of this team doesn’t seem like enough. They have poured their hearts into this season and all of their hard work has definitely paid off! At the end of the season, we were able to say we had the titles of conference runner-up, district champions, and now Class D-2 State Champions and have made history for Osmond. This is an amazing way to end the 2026 season.
