After several years without, Albert Lea High School’s reincarnated speech team sent one member to state Friday.

Senior Dora Ogunkanbi competed in serious interpretation — poetry at the 1AA state tournament in Apple Valley. She finished 15th out of 24 competitors in her category.

Ogunkanbi said competing in the state tournament was not one of her goals for the season. Instead, she wanted to have fun and be proud of the work she put into learning her performance.

“On the section day, I was very surprised,” Ogunkanbi said. She was competing against students who have been participating in high school speech for years.

She qualified for the state competition by placing second in a tournament with fellow Big Nine schools. The top three performers qualified for state.

For serious interpretation of poetry, students are asked to perform selections of poetry based around a theme. Often, students’ performances will be a mash-up of several poems to fill the eight to 10 minutes students have to present. Ogunkanbi selected one poem for the competition. Her theme was love, because she felt it would be relatable for those listening. The poem was about a man who wasn’t sure he wanted to fall in love because of how difficult it was to lose one love — his mother — to cancer

“I kind of had to put myself in his shoes,” Ogunkanbi said. She found the poem trawling the depths of YouTube.

Ogunkanbi said she chose to compete in poetry because of an interest in slam poetry. But despite her familiarity with performed poetry, it was a learning curve to morph the performance for the speech setting. In speech, there are no microphones, and there’s a certain amount of space for performers to utilize.

“You really have to make sure everyone in the crowd understands,” Ogunkanbi said of the performances.

Albert Lea High School’s speech adviser, Sarah Fischer, said she saw Ogunkanbi’s confidence “skyrocket” through the season.

“I’ve seen her really grow in regards to, I mean, her public speaking skills,” Fischer said.

Going into the year, Fischer said she had no expectations for the team’s performance. She knew it would be a building year and saw it as an opportunity to introduce and excite students about speech.

“The fact that Dora went as far as state was extremely exciting,” she said.

It took Ogunkanbi some time to see that growth for herself. However, as she continued to compete in tournaments, she noticed her feedback becoming more positive.

“That’s when I kind of knew that I was getting better,” she said.

Next year, Ogunkanbi plans to attend the University of Minnesota. She said she plans to look into competing at the college level.

The Minnesota State High School League recognizes 13 categories in total under the umbrella that is speech. Beneath that are two further subdivisions: interpretive speaking — typically more dramatic in nature, and what Ogunkanbi’s category fell under — and public address, whose styles are more in line with what is considered traditional public speaking.

“We’re super proud of her — the whole school, not just me,” Fischer said.