On Friday, Nov. 2, and Saturday, Nov. 3, the LSW Speech team will be competing at the first speech tournaments of the year. The tournaments will take place in Omaha.

Novice members will be going to Millard North in Omaha on Friday, and Varsity members will attend the Saturday tournament at Bellevue West.

“We are a little behind schedule in getting ready for the tournaments,” Speech Coach Matt Heimes said. “The biggest thing for novice members is just to learn how a speech tournament works because it is such a foreign concept to most of them that they just need to experience one.”

For novice members, it isn’t so much about coming home with the gold, as it is learning the lay of the land.

“I think with a lot of practice I’m going to be really good,” freshman Amani Hamedi said. “I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of new people and learning more about public speaking.”

Varsity members are being encouraged to help novice members who might be struggling with their speeches.

“ I was super nervous my novice year, because I was so focused on what the other people in my round were doing, and how they would do their performance,” junior Tatum Johnson said. “My advice would be focus on giving the best performance that you can, and everything else will fall into place.”