Mount Carmel is all about new beginnings. Whether it is in the classroom, on the sports field, or in this case, for the Caravan Speech team: For the first time in the 115 year history of the the school, the Caravan fielded a competitive speech team in the IHSA regional, three of whom advanced to sectionals, and one – sophomore Justin Fekete – making it to the finals downstate.

All nine students who competed in the regional tournament made it to the finals, senior Will Maloney (Original Comedy), and sophomores Branimir Illic (Extemporaneous Speaking), and Justin Fekete (Radio Speaking and Special Occasion Speaking), winning their events and moving onto the sectional tournament.

These three men, along with the help of the other six MC students who competed, were able to defeat Marist, the  only other Catholic League school in the tournament, by 17 points.

“Everyone knows how successful our athletic coaches have been over their careers, but Mr. Brumirski has a very successful past as well,” says senior Dan Hogan, who is a member of the team. “He is the reason why we did so well for competing in the IHSA regional for the first time.”

Fekete ended up taking 12th out of 20 people who competed in this past weekends finals, competing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, airing a new news broadcast every single time.

“I have 5 minutes to display my news broadcast that takes 45 minutes to put together,” says Fekete. As he advances to each new round, he has to make a new broadcast every time.

The one thing Fekete has to worry about is the “15 second rule.” He has a 15 second window to add information, and if he fails to do this, he is disqualified.

As Fekete is the very first MC student to make it down state, he hopes students realize that it is possible. “It was only the first year of speech team, and we had a member make it downstate. I hope students will want to join and be apart of this.”