Pohlen, Buysse shine at home speech meet

Minneota senior Wyatt Pohlen and sophomore Gretta Buysse each took home first-place plaques from Saturday’s Minneota Speech Invitational.
Pohlen was first in Discussion and Buysse was first in Creative.
Johnny Fales and Alexis Bitker of Minneota placed second in Informative and Great Speeches, respectively.
There was a total of 17 teams in the meet.
Russell-Tyler-Ruthton finished in first place, while Worthington was second and Minneota third. Because home teams aren’t eligible to win one of the top three trophies, fourth-place Marshall was awarded third place.
Pohlen, a two-time state entrant and co-captain on this year’s team, also finished third in Extemporaneous Speaking. Carson Becker was fourth in Great Speeches, the Duo team of Ashlyn DeVos and Marlene Rodrigeuz was fifth, and Dawson Dovre was sixth in Extemporaneous Speaking.
“We have a really strong team this year,” Pohlen said. “We all get along well and we all really enjoy what we’re doing.”
Pohlen won the six-person Discussion final based on the topic: “Should the United States leave the World Trade Organization?” The Extemporaneous Speaking final question that he and Dovre competed in, asked: “What impact will mass deportations have on state and local economies?”
“Wyatt is really well researched and is able to take information and make it digestible for the listener to make his point,” said Minneota coach Kim Gades. “He’s a really a hard worker and a leader on our team.”
When the Extemporaneous Speaking participants are informed of their question, they have only 30 minutes to prepare and are allowed to use the internet to gather information.
“It’s a lot of fun because you never know what the topic will be each week,” said Pohlen. “I like being challenged like that.”
Buysse, in only her second year in speech, competes in Creative Expression in which students must “create” their own story.
“The name of my story is ‘The Year I Turned Macho,’” Buysse said. “It’s about a girl who lacks confidence and then takes protein powder and becomes super confident. She plays on the softball team and does great and hits a home run, but there are also downfalls to taking it, too, as she becomes way too confident.”
Buysse also competes in Humor. Her piece is about two girls who find a “boy book” that teaches them all the things they need to know when dealing with boys.
“When we started practices, Gretta came in to Brandon (assistant coach Brandon Caster) and me with a piece already written,” Gades said. “We’ve edited and tweaked along the way, but she’s stayed true to her original message to be herself and not passing judgment on others. She’s one of the hardest workers on the team juggling basketball and two categories this year.”
Fales, the other co-captain, qualified for state competition a year ago.
His Informative piece this year is titled “Press Your Luck”, in which he tells that luck isn’t always what you think it is, debunking certain superstitions, and even touched on the probability of gambling.
“He’s had another really solid year so far, and might even have another visual aid up his sleeve,” Gades said.
Bitker is a newcomer to the team and is already making a big impact.
“She just dove right in to Great Speeches with her analytical skills,” said Gades.
Bitker selected “Confessions of a Depressed Comic” for her speech. Caster assisted her in landing on her mode of analysis.
“Alexis has really taken over with cutting it and coming up with analysis for the speech,” said Gades.
Becker switched his category from Discussion to Great Speeches and chose President Barack Obama’s address he gave to the United Nations in 2016.
“He zeroed in right away on the themes he wanted to focus on from the speech, and we’ve just kind of guided him from there,” Gades noted. “He’s really embraced the category and its challenges.”
DeVos and Rodriguez perform a Duo piece together called “Ditzies”, which is about two ditzy girls going through every day adventures.
“These ladies are new to speech this year, but you’d never know it with their attitude, poise, and work ethic,” Gades remarked. “They are high energy, and extremely driven. It’s rare to be a brand new duo and place in the top six at varsity meets, but these two are working their tails off to make it happen.”
Dovre made the move from Humor to Extemporaneous Speaking, a big contract in categories.
“He’s been doing a good job so far this year with learning how to set up an Extemp speech on the fly and researching,” Gades said.