FAIRMONT — Fairmont High School’s speech season is in full swing. Members of the speech team have been able to compete in virtual tournaments this year.

The team’s coaches, Erik and Kathleen Walker, are in their sixth year of coaching. They shared how last year’s speech season was affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

“It stopped in its tracks mid-March. We were loading the vans to go to the National-qualifying tournament when I saw an email that said ‘urgent,'” Kathleen said.

She pointed out that at that time, early on in the pandemic, virtual competition wasn’t something that was being discussed yet.

“The knowledge of the pandemic wasn’t even there yet. We thought the season might come back, but then everyone went into quarantine and we realized our season was over. In April we decided to bring closure to our team and celebrate our seniors,” Kathleen said.

However, some members of Fairmont’s speech team got some experience with virtual competitions last year. While the Minnesota State High School League shut everything down last spring, two students, Tabitha Thatcher and Isabell Geiger were able to participate in last year’s National’s virtually.

“Setting up the accommodations for students doing virtual competitions has only improved over the months,” Kathleen said.

This year practices have looked different than past years as some of it has been done virtually. Their third coach lives in Kansas, but is still able to coach virtually.

Erik, who is also Fairmont’s debate coach, said they were able to meet and practice in person at the start of their season in September. However, when the school turned to distance learning, debate practice and competitions also turned virtual.

“We went to the state tournament with everyone competing from their own house,” Erik said.

For this speech season, the Walkers began working with their speech students in December by looking for pieces and thinking of ideas. This season there’s about 30 students on the speech team grades 7-12.

“There are nine seniors that Erik and I met when we came here in 2015. For us, it’s a really special season because these nine seniors joined as seventh-graders when we came to Fairmont,” Kathleen said.

They are able to practice some in person right now with students spread throughout the school, but students also have the option to practice from home.

“Speech is so individually-based so the kids can practice with us over Zoom from home and be safe,” Kathleen said.

Last weekend, the team participated in its first virtual competition.

“Marshall hosted an online tournament with six different states and 34 teams. One of the advantages that virtual now offers is there’s no distance. You can sign in from anywhere,” Erik said.

He pointed out that there is no travel time and no need to book hotel rooms, so it really makes the process fairly simple.

Fairmont students were able to meet at the school in order to use the resources there, such as the consistent wireless connection. They each performed on their own in a classroom and were able to go into the commons and spread out so they could warm up together.

Thirteen students competed at the school last weekend and two competed from home.

“With the program we do our tournament on, Speech Wire, they can see where their rounds and they can see the schedule and this year there’s a virtual squad room. So even if we were really restricted and couldn’t be together at the school, our team could still be together in this virtual squad room,” Kathleen said.

There should be the same number of tournaments this season as a regular season. They will just be held in a different format.

“Whatever we get, we’re so thankful for it. The fact that speech gives kids an opportunity to find their voice and build their speaking confidence, and the fact that we can do that virtually is so great,” Kathleen said.

The coaches expressed gratitude for the adults who have stepped up to plan for all these opportunities to make the speech season possible.

“I’m so grateful for everybody who’s a part of making sure we can have a season in our school like (activities director) Mat Mahoney who worked with me on what we can do for speech, and the facilities coordinator Kris Seifert for making sure we can use the building every Saturday,” Kathleen said,

She also thanked the school’s head custodian, Mark Borchardt, who made sure they had access to everything they needed at the school on a weekend. Other teachers have also agreed to let the students use their classrooms while they perform during the tournaments.

While there’s conversation about possible, future in-person competitions. Kathleen said it makes them excited at the prospect, but right now they’re taking everything one week at a time.

The speech season goes through late April, when the state tournament will be held. The coaches are thankful this season is possible, but there is no denying that it is different.

“There are so many traditions with speech. We’ve had to be so grateful for whatever we’re getting and part of that is re-thinking and adapting some of the traditions we used to have and making new ones,” Kathleen said.