IHS Student Wins State Speech Competition

Published April 27, 2017

Independence High student Steele Schoebrel is on the cusp of wrapping up his sophomore year at IHS and he’s already proven himself to be one of the best high school speakers in Tennessee.

Schoebrel recently capped off an impressive speaking run with a first-place finish at the Rotary District 6760 Four Way Test State Speech Contest in Chattanooga on April 22.

“I honestly just got into it because I thought it would be a fun thing to do,” Schoebrel said. “It never crossed my mind it would go this far.”

To make it all the way to the state final, Schoebrel first won his school competition, then spoke at a Rotary luncheon before advancing to the district competition at the Franklin Ag Expo Center.

From there, he advanced to the finals in Chattanooga.

His speech took on the topic of fake news while considering four questions posed by the Rotary club. The questions he answered about fake news were: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Does it promote goodwill and better friendship? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

“The first thing that came to my mind after hearing those four questions was the topic of fake news because it’s relevant and I just feel like a lot of people aren’t informed about it,” Schoebrel said.

Beating the competition was sweet, but the $1,000 cash prize he got for winning was even sweeter.

After all was said and done, Schoebrel finished his speaking run with a total of $1,850 in prize money from the three competitions and the luncheon.

That money will be put to good use once the school year ends.

Schoebrel is taking a school trip to Germany this summer and plans to use his winnings to make the most of his adventure in Europe.