Football is the iconic sport for which Mount Carmel has been known for 115 years. But now, a new team is making some noise and gaining some accolades of its own.

In its first year of competition in 2014-15, Mount Carmel’s IHSA Competitive Speech Team sent William Maloney, Branimir Ilic, and Justin Fekete to Sectionals. Fekete went on to qualify for the state competition and far exceeding expectations. Right back at it again this year, the team has been excelling in all aspects of the competition. Collectively they already have achieved two top five finishes, which is two more than they had all of last year. With the season starting in November and running all the way through February, the team is looking forward to collecting even more awards.

Fekete, the most decorated member of this young team, has been putting in hard work day in and day out.  “Obviously the more often you practice the better you are.” With this in mind, the team meets every single day after school for up to two hours, sometimes even longer.

The average practice session consists of writing and practicing speeches depending on the event in which a student is competing. After setting his practice goal for the day, the student then approaches either Mr. Dennis Brumirski, Mr. Neil Heyman, or Mr. Lorenzo Nunez, the coach and assistant coaches of the Speech team, respectively. The practices emphasize memorization and oratory skills which aid the students inside and outside the classroom.

All of the students who compete on the Caravan Speech team, including Fekete have benefitted greatly from the experience, whether that is the social or educational aspect of the actual competition. “Giving speeches in class has become much easier since I joined the Speech team.”  Almost every Saturday the team gathers at Mount Carmel at six in the morning to begin its long day. They quickly board the bus and head off to their competition. Upon arrival, paperwork must be filled out in order to ensure everything is official and done correctly. After all of that tedious work, the actual event begins. Three rounds of competition are played to see who will then move on to the final round and ultimately have a chance to take home the first place award.

Heyman has been adamant about the opportunity to improve and grow the team this year after all of the success they accomplished with so little experience last winter. “It is the perfect team activity here at Mount Carmel.”  Speech is an official IHSA competition, and is recognized accordingly by the school. It is extremely competitive, making it great for Mount Carmel’s  all-boy environment.

Brumirski has reiterated that Speech is great for all students at Mount Carmel because of its diversity. “Speech consists of a variety of events including acting, speaking, debating, and the interpretation of poetry and fiction. This means we have something for everyone interested in any of these things.” The team welcomes additional students to join and be a part of this new winning tradition that aims to be a force to be reckoned with.

In addition to Fekete and Ilic, this year’s Speech team includes (alphabetically) Dominic Antonietti, Khanna Barrow, Connor Boston, Joe Bottos, Jack Carter, Alex Correa, Juan De La Torre, Nick Dimas, Luke Ehrenstrom, Joseph Ferrell, Robert Gregg, Quinn Gregory, Amir Hardeman, Cameron Harris, Brendan Kelly, Kyle Koval, Larry Kudaisi, Zion Mallette, Sean McCabe, Patrick McKay, Tim, McNamara, McLean Milavickus, Anthony Morales, Ethan Mowatt, Gabe Nunley, Nnamdi Okabuonye, Ethan Oliver, Michael Peck, Bryce Pezel, Abdel Raoul, Emmanuel Reid, Nick Renzetti, Noah River-Jansky, Xavier Smith, Zac Styka, Aidan Varela, Marcus Watson, and Reggie Williams.