Joliet West’s Daniel Sanchez places at IHSA state speech tournament

Joliet — Joliet West High School senior Daniel Sanchez was recognized at the IHSA state speech tournament Feb. 17 in Peoria.

Sanchez, who served as Joliet West’s team captain this year, was one of three students from the speech team to qualify for the state tournament and placed third in original comedy, an event that sees students write and perform their own humorous, one-man plays.

Speeches must be less than eight and a half minutes long and follow a designated structure, containing multiple characters students perform with unique voices and body language and usually ending with a fable-like moral to the story.

“Getting to state was the main goal all season, so I was honestly just happy to be there.”

—  Daniel Sanchez, Joliet West High School senior

Sanchez’s story revolved around a Southern cooking show host who was being pressured to cook healthy for ratings and, with the help of anthropomorphized biscuit ingredients, learns that being happy can be more important than being healthy, and that changing yourself to please others may not be for the best.

“It was a crazy story,” Sanchez said. “I’m very happy about how I did. I lost to two great competitors, and I’m glad I got to go to state with my friends. It was fun.”

In speech, 18 students from around Illinois advance to the state tournament in each of 14 events to compete for the title. After preliminary rounds, the top six in each event compete in a final round and are recognized with awards.

In order to advance to state, Sanchez needed to place in the top four at Joliet West’s regional competition Feb. 3 and then in the top three at the sectional competition the subsequent week.

He placed first in the regional competition and second at sectionals.

He also qualified for state in a second event, special occasion speaking, by taking first place at sectionals, but he was eliminated in the preliminary rounds of that event at state.

“My first round did not go well for SOS at state, but that worked out alright because I got to focus on my main event in finals,” Sanchez said. “Getting to state was the main goal all season, so I was honestly just happy to be there. Once I got there, I treated every round like it was a final round because I knew each one could be my last performance. When I made it to the final, I knew it was going to be my last performance, so I did everything I possibly could. I just didn’t want to come in last.”

The Joliet West team had a strong showing for the year on the whole. The team had an undefeated season, placing first at all eight varsity invitationals they attended from October through January and taking home both conference and regional championships.

The team also placed fourth overall at sectionals.

Along with Sanchez, Bethany Yanick and Kara Duensing also qualified for the state tournament at sectionals. Yanick took first place in impromptu speaking at both the regional and sectional tournaments, and Duensing qualified in informative speaking, placing third at regionals and second at the sectional competition.

“Sectionals was rough because we had success in all 14 events this year, but we’re also in the hardest sectional in the state, so it’s really great to advance four to state,” head coach Kristin Blake said. “We were very excited about our season this year.

“Speech is something very special. It combines the competitiveness of athletics with the performance of drama. I think it’s one of the best things students can get involved with. I love it so much. We’re very proud of the team we have, and we hope to see more success in the future.”

Blake and many of the speech students, including Sanchez, now have shifted their focus to group interpretation, which is a competitive play. The team’s performance this year is of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and Sanchez stars as Quasimodo.

“Part of me is mourning the loss of speech,” Sanchez said. “I’ve been doing it since I was a sophomore. I really hope we can get group interp to state now because I’d love to have that experience one more time.”