Photo by Deb Gau Members of the Marshall High School speech team did warm-up drills before a mock tournament Saturday morning. The mock tournament — a shorter version of the real thing — helps students prepare for the start of speech season.

MARSHALL — They were all dressed up, but one thing was left before members of the Marshall High School speech team were ready to go. The team gathered in an empty classroom to warm up — a process that involved shaking out arms and legs, stretching out faces, and repeating lots of tongue twisters.

Speech warm-ups might look a little silly, but they’re fun and help get students ready to perform. And those were also the main reasons the speech team held a mock tournament Saturday morning.

The Tiger speech team heads out to its first invitational tournament Jan. 19. This weekend’s mock tournament was like a short simulation of the real thing, with students performing for their teammates and getting feedback from community members serving as judges.

“Not only is it good for them preparation-wise, it’s a good bonding experience for the team,” said head speech coach Rick Purrington. It was speech students who helped turn “the mock” into a team tradition. A few years ago, Marshall had stopped doing a mock tournament. But after one season with a rough start for Marshall, Purrington said, “The kids wanted it again.”

Students taking part in Saturday’s mock tournament included new team members. Emily Hernandez said she went out for speech after hearing about it from family.

“My cousin did speech, and he said I’d like it,” Hernandez said.

Others were new to the high school team, but already loved speech.

“I did middle school speech for two years,” said Holland Netzley. Netzley was one of many speakers out practicing in the school hallways, getting ready for the next round of mock competition.

Students said they were both having fun, and feeling a little nervous at performing. In some ways, Bethany Greathouse said, the mock is a little more nerve-wracking than actual tournaments.

“You’re competing against people you know,”she said.

But students were having fun with the mock tournament, too. At lunch, the team gathered around as Purrington unveiled a new photo collage for the speech team’s history wall. And during the break, a few students even went right back to doing warm-up exercises.

“It’s for bingo,” they said. The team had handed out speech bingo cards for the mock tournament, with tasks like “take pictures of yourself doing warm-ups” on each of the squares. Their group was busy working on a bingo blackout.