When Taylor Petersen delivers her speech, it may be in the form of ones and zeroes transmitted over the internet, but the weight of emotion and dedication in her voice still carries strong. Petersen, a junior and highly dedicated captain for the forensics speech team, competed in the state forensics tournament March 20.
For Petersen, the road to state was almost as arduous as the tournament itself. Before she could even think about state, Petersen had 24 regular season tournaments to compete at. Unfettered by this intimidating schedule, Petersen was wildly successful all season.
“I had a really, really great general season,” Petersen said. “I placed at every [regular season] tournament without fail.”
“Taylor has been very impressive this season,” coach Rebecca Johnson-Geiss said. “She put in the work, she put in the effort, and it paid off.”
Besides just placing, Petersen also managed to win her event at three tournaments.
“I got two first places in Poetry Interpretation and one first place finish in Dramatic Interpretation,” Petersen said.
Once the regular season was over, Coach Johnson-Geiss and Petersen began rigorous preparation for state.
“We began two weeks of grueling practice,” Petersen said. In the events Petersen does, Dramatic and Poetry Interpretation, practice is particularly strenuous.
“When you go to state forensics in interpretation events,… there is no break,” Petersen said, “It’s just straight up fixing your performance,… performing over and over again.” While other events spend some time doing easy side projects like updating their visual aids and perfecting their stances, practice in Petersen’s events entailed nothing but focused, highly specific perfection of her speech.
“Runners have endurance, athletes have endurance, … we like to say that Taylor has forensics endurance,” Johnson-Geiss said. Having put in countless hours during the regular season, Petersen was well prepared for the long practice sessions leading up to state.
“I put in around 50 hours of practice,” Petersen said. This brutal practice schedule would have scared off many, but this is no match for Petersen’s determination.
“All the hard work is worth it, because [forensics] is the one activity that I truly love,” Petersen said.
With the ever lingering restrictions imposed by COVID-19, it’s no surprise that this year’s state forensics wasn’t quite the same. “State was fun… but it was all online,” Petersen said, “There was no Kearney, there was no overnight … it was actually more just like a regular Saturday tournament,” Petersen said.
Instead of competing in person in Kearney as per usual, the competition was done virtually just like the majority of regular season forensics tournaments this year. For Petersen, she said this was disappointing, but her and all the forensics program still managed to have a great time.
“There were tons of people in and out all day… watching, chilling, playing games, hanging out… it was fun,” Petersen said. Despite being in a classroom at Millard South as opposed to a competition stage at Kearney, Petersen and the forensics team were able to enjoy the state tournament a lot.
While the context of state may have been different, the competitive edge was as sharp as ever.
“We did three rounds [of competition],” Petersen said. After a long day and several months of hard work, the results were slightly disappointing to Petersen. “I didn’t break into top six,” she said. Even though she didn’t make it into the finals round, Petersen said she was still proud of her performance.
“Making state is almost as good as placing at state,” Petersen said. “At the end of the day state is really just another tournament … especially this year.” Even though she didn’t place in the top six, Petersen managed to both perform well and enjoy the experience of competing at state.
While for most forensics competitors the state tournament acts as the capstone of their season, Petersen is just getting started. Even though she didn’t place at state, Petersen’s impressive performance during the regular season has qualified her for both of the forensics national tournaments, the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC), and the National Speech and Debate Association nationals (NSDA).
“I’m excited because this will be my first time having a student qualify for NIETOC and NSDA,” Johnson-Geiss said. After a small break following state, Petersen is ready to get back to work on her speech. “Once we get back from spring break we’re going to start practicing for NIETOC,” Petersen said. With NIETOC in May and NSDA in June, Petersen’s season is just beginning.
