Golden Apple: WHA Speech Team Competes at 50th Annual Chuck Beckman Memorial Meet

The Walker-Hackensack-Akeley speech team recently participated in the 50th Annual Chuck Beckman Memorial Speech Tournament last Saturday, where they took home 7th place among 27 competing schools.

When it comes to speech tournaments in northern Minnesota, one of the largest events is the Chuck Beckman Tournament. The WHA high school speech team itself has been very successful with over 200 Minnesota State High School League medals since 1964. WHA Head Speech Coach Stewart Wilson shared that continuing the tradition of hosting a tournament helps speech teams across the north country have a wide variety of competition.

There were roughly 350 students participating in 13 different speech categories this year. WHA Speech Team students Lily Pedersen, Ada Muller, and Natalie Resch-Seely have all been in speech for five to six years. All three of them said that it was quite an honor to be back competing in the Chuck Beckman Competition, especially during its 50th anniversary.

The season for the WHA Speech Team continues as they’re busy preparing for the upcoming state tournament in April.