I want to congratulate the members of the Mankato East and West Speech teams for representing our community so well at the recent state tournament. They are an outstanding group of talented young people.

What is disappointing to me is the lack of public recognition for their achievements. Unlike football, hockey or golf teams who qualify for state, when speech teams compete at the state level there are no newspaper articles leading up to the tournament, no profiles of individual team members, no half-page coverage of the tournament itself.

Speech, Math League, Envirothon and History Day are activities in which our students are representing their schools just as they do by participating in sports.

Let’s give them the attention they so deserve.