08-03-2025
Speaking their truth: LHS speech seniors ready to have the last word at state finals
Jennifer Anaya-Serrano recalled being too shy to ask to join the speech team when she was a freshman.
The Logansport High School senior said she couldn't even talk to her teachers she was so afraid.
With the support of her sister, she took the big step as a sophomore and joined the team. Saturday, she will compete in her third state finals and she said she had never felt as confident as she does now.
Overall, Logansport advanced 17 students to the state finals. They will compete across 24 different categories.
'Seventeen is a lot of kids. Twenty-four is a lot of entries,' said coach Jessica Kranz, an English teacher at LHS, as the team practiced Tuesday afternoon. 'I feel that ups our chances of doing well and if nothing else it increases the energy heading in. It's huge energy.'
'I feel like everyone on the team is just bouncing off of each other,' Anaya-Serrano said. 'I feel like energies are high and our spirit is even higher.'
When she joined speech, she said there were around 15 people on the team. That team would send eight members to the 2023 state finals and go on to finish in fifth place in the class AA team competition and 10th overall. In 2024, they sent 15 students and finished sixth.
Anaya-Serrano said that confidence she was feeling for the 2025 state finals was based on experience.
'I feel like the coaches on the speech team do such a good job instilling a sense of confidence within you and it bounces off everyone,' she said. 'There are people here who support you in everything you do. You can't help but believe in yourself when you are here.'
Those coaches include Kranz's mother Joyce Pasel, Chris Miller and Ashley Hayes. Together, they represent four generations of Berry speech. Pasel competed in the 1970s, Miller in the 1980s, Kranz in the 1990s and Hayes in the 2000s.
'We couldn't do what we do without all of us working together,' Kranz said.
Anaya-Serrano will compete in the impromptu and domestic extemporaneous categories Saturday. Both events require on-the-spot thinking. She won't know her topics until it's time for her to compete and she has limited time to develop a speech.
'It all comes right back to the speaking skills that I've learned,' she said. 'It all leads back to that confidence. I have such an audacity now that I'm sure if my freshman self could see me now, it would be almost incomprehensible to her.'
Aiden Snoeberger, a senior, has been one of the most reliable team members for Berry speech. He's the McCutcheon sectional champion in the radio broadcasting category and has two more recent first place finishes.
Radio broadcasting is based entirely on vocal performance and has competitors recording a radio segment.
It's Snoeberger's first time competing in radio broadcasting at state, but his second trip overall.
Snoeberger credited his time in theater as helping him develop as a speech competitor. And being a member of the speech team has helped him round out his social skills.
'It's broken me out of my shell,' he said. 'I think it's made me a lot more outspoken. My event is really reliant on my voice and I think (performing) has helped me with my voice and made it stronger.'
A four-year member of the team, Snoeberger said that public speaker wasn't his strong suit before joining. He started in the discussion category where he would have to debate other students at meets. He called the experience frightening.
Despite the confidence he gained through theater, he said he worried about how he would do during the 2024-25 speech session.
'If it didn't happen this year, it would have been disappointing but I had so much fun with speech that whatever place I get really doesn't matter in the end. It's the memories that really count.'
Senior Ared Ruiz, competing in humorous interpretation, said that he was approaching the state finals with the mindset to have fun.
'As long as I have fun it will be great,' he said.
Ruiz recalled heartbreak last year when he and some of his speech team friends didn't qualify for state.
'This entire team just feels like family,' he said. 'We all bring this great vibe to the team. It's a pretty big group and having them altogether at state is really amazing. I'm really happy that we have achieved so much this year.'
Alexa Sanchez-Agreda was practicing her informative speech about Henry the VIII and his wives, which was inspired by the hit Broadway musical 'Six.'
'I'm feeling excited but also anxious and sad at the same time because this is my last year,' she said afterwards.
She joined speech as a junior and she loved every moment she had experienced on the team. She was inspired to join after seeing what the 2023 team accomplished.
'I was like 'wow, they are great,'' she said. 'I'm really sad I didn't join it sooner.'
She was also excited to share the triumph of advancing to state with so many teammates.
'I feel a lot of us are close,' she said. 'It just means a lot because you get to see everyone succeed. You see them at sectionals make top six and you are like 'oh my gosh! We are all going to state together.'
The team will compete at Fishers High School beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.
'Our speech team has built a legacy of excellence,' said Principal Matt Jones. 'Under the leadership of Coach Mrs. Jessica Kranz and her dedicated staff, they continue to raise the bar year after year. We graduate outstanding speech students, yet a new wave of talent is always ready to step up. It's truly impressive.'
'This senior class is very awesome because they aren't necessarily the kids who you would think are your public speakers,' said Kranz. 'They aren't the kids who you would think are your public performers. They aren't your theatrical stage kids. These are your kids who had something they needed to say. They had a truth. They had a story. They had a presentation they needed to put out there. They are a different crew in all the best ways possible. And we are so proud of them.'
