Perham duo speech team advances to national tournament in Shakopee

Faith Kalina and Tessa Starzl carried a Perham High School partnership they started in seventh grade onto the national speech stage, finishing 10th at state and advancing to the octofinals at the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions in Shakopee. For Otter Tail County, the run marked more than a strong season finish. It showed a small-town program producing a Duo team good enough to compete with the country’s best.

The Perham-Dent Public Schools duo performed a 10-minute cutting from Michael Arndt’s Little Miss Sunshine, a selection their coach said matched their style because it blended humor, heart and authenticity. That combination gave Kalina and Starzl a routine built on timing, expression and trust, the kind of chemistry that comes only after years of working together in the same event. Their long-running partnership has become one of the clearest reasons the Yellowjackets have stood out in speech.

NIETOC, one of the major national tournaments for individual speech events, included Duo Interpretation among its categories and awarded scholarships to champions in the main events and to the top individual performer. The 2026 tournament was scheduled for May 7-10 at Shakopee High School in Minnesota, putting Perham students in the same arena as top competitors from around the country. Kalina and Starzl’s advancement to the octofinals gave the school a result that reached well beyond the usual local and sectional circuit.

Perham’s climb to that point was backed by a deeper team effort. The speech team finished runner-up in Section 6A, and Kasey Wacker was named Section 6A Coach of the Year. Six Yellowjackets also qualified for the state speech meet at Park Center High School on April 24-25, underscoring that Kalina and Starzl were part of a program with real depth, not just a single standout pairing.

That pattern was visible in earlier results, too. Perham won the Subsection 22A tournament in Underwood on April 3, 2023, and Kalina and Starzl placed second in Duo there. Earlier that same season, at another Underwood meet, Josh Kalina and Molly Pearson took first in Duo while Kalina and Starzl were second. Together, those results show a Perham speech program that has spent several seasons building toward a national moment and delivering it.