Madison Aboud

Sophomore Kallie Kunkle places 2nd in her speech league competition

Sophomore Kallie Kunkle placed second in the poetry category at a recent Speech League competition making her go to the State Championships at Bloomsburg University on March 21-22.

According to her coach, Julie Storm, the poetry category included a large number of competitors. 

“Poetry is super competitive. It’s probably the category that has the most kids in it,” Storm said. “So for her to place second was outstanding.”

Storm said Kunkle’s preparation and emotion helped contribute to her win.

“It was like a relief because she has worked so hard,” Storm said. “She’s earned it, so it was really nice, and it was fun.”

Storm also described Kunkle’s performance style.

“She is very dramatic when she does the retelling of it, and she puts a lot of work into it, so that really shows,” Storm said. “Her dramatic ability is good. She can read the room and just knows what inflections to use at the right time whenever she’s doing the reading.”

Another one of Kallie’s coaches Rosalie DiPaola also shared her thoughts and reaction to Kunkle’s achievement.

“I could have cried for her. I was so happy,” DiPaola said. “She was not happy with her performance at the previous meet, so she came in ready for vengeance, wanting to do the best she could, and we only take the top two people to states. So she was very nervous, but when she got second place, we all were cheering for her, and she was very, very excited.”

Dipaola said the growth in Kunkle’s poetry throughout the year is noticeable.

“I think even at the beginning of the year, when we started picking out pieces for her, she wasn’t entirely sure of the direction she wanted to go — like how she wanted to align the poems and which poems she wanted to choose,” DiPaola said. “But she took that all, and she took the advice that me and Mrs. Storm gave her, and she created her own story and brought that drama to life, and she receives all these positive comments from other judges, so it really just shows the work that she’s putting in.”

Kunkle said she did feel nervous about the results.

“The entire time right before the results came back I was super panicked, but once the results came back I was super excited and cheered with all my friends,” Kunkle said.

She wasn’t so sure if she would place or not.

“I had a little bit of expectation to place because I had placed so many times before, but I also wasn’t sure because there were a lot of heavy competitors in the room,” Kunkle said.

For the competition Kallie performed four different poems: “Narcissist” by Asha Nicole, “Narcissist” by Amanda Shelton, “Leaving” by JB, and “Entangled Roots” by Justin Farley.

“So narcissistic people have been a very big part of my life, so I figured doing something that has been a big part of my life would be useful to not only a better understanding of how to perform it but also just a better chance at winning,” Kunkle said.

Kunkle said they started preparing near the beginning of the school year so she spent about a month or two working on it. 

Poetry has helped her build up her confidence a lot since she started performing. 

“I have become a lot more confident since I got into the poetry category,” Kunkle said.

Kunkle said she plans to continue competing in speech.

This accomplishment has affected her positively and encourages her to keep doing poetry.

“It’s really shown me a good chunk of self-worth, but it has also given me a lot of pride in the things that I’m able to do,” Kunkle said.