2 Culver students win Speech state championships, team finishes 2nd

Juan Nobmann ’25 and Ryane Buschman ’26 won individual state championships at the Indiana Schools Speech tournament, leading the Culver Academies team to a second-place finish in Class A and seventh overall among all high schools.

“Another successful season,” said coach Mitch Barnes, a senior instructor in humanities. “Having two state champs is a first for us.”

Nobmann won in humorous interpretation and Buschman won in impromptu. Nobmann also took fourth place in prose interpretation. Juwon Chung ’28 also was a state finalist, finishing sixth in discussion.

Culver has won six state championships in Barnes’ 28 years of coaching the team. Barnes said it’s a combination of talented students, strong coaching and resources that make Culver so strong.

“We have a solid talent pool to pull from. Another major part is resources. A lot of schools out there don’t have budgets. They’re hosting a tournament and selling concessions to make their budget. That’s something we don’t have to worry about,” Barnes said. “It allows us to buy scripts. It allows us to pay for NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association) membership and buy awards. We don’t have to worry about, ‘How are we going to get to the tournament next week?’ ”

He said it also helps having a veteran staff of coaches. Senior humanities instructor Brad Trevathan has coached for 26 years, senior leadership instructor Angie Strobel ’98 has coached for 20 seasons, and world language and culture master instructor Cory Barnes for 10 seasons. Other coaches include Latin instructor Evan Armacost, Spanish instructor Austin Heise, senior humanities instructor Lou Canelli and Evelyn Kwon Armacost.

“Our goal is to make sure by the end of the season the students are much further along than where they started from,” Barnes said.

Nobmann said he enjoys humorous interpretation because it allows him to express himself in new ways.

“I get to lose myself in the story,” he said. “Whatever I do I have no inhibitions. It’s almost like it’s not me; but it is me.”

He performed 10 minutes of a scene from the play “I Hate Shakespeare,” by Stef DeFerie, which Nobmann describes as a satirical version of Hamlet filled with potty humor.

Nobmann said he especially likes being able to do voice impressions. During his state championship-winning performance he played Hamlet’s mother while impersonating the voice of actress Jennifer Coolidge. The script simply reads, “She dies.”

Nobmann interpreted it as she died from food poisoning, making gurgling noises in Coolidge’s voice.

“It’s stupid, but it’s funny to do,” he said.

Especially coming from a hulking 6-foot-4 teenager sounding like a woman.

“It always kills everyone because they don’t expect me to do a voice like that,” he said. “I go all out.”

Barnes said being able to do funny voices is essential in the humor category.

“Some kids can just impersonate their teachers or impersonate other people or celebrities,” Barnes said. “Some kids have it naturally, others can develop it. Juan locked into it real quickly and kept getting better at it.”

Nobmann finished sixth at state in that category as a third classman. It’s actually the third time in four years Culver has won this category.

Ella Campbell ’23 won back-to-back championships, leading Culver to the Class A state title in 2023 – its second state title in three years. Nobmann said Campbell helped coach him that year.

“He learned from one of the best and added his talents to it and took it as far as he could take it,” Barnes said.

 

 

Barnes said Buschman has been one of Culver’s most solid impromptu performers in the past few years.

“She’s very creative. She’s very analytical. She’s very well-read. You need that for impromptu,” Barnes said.

Impromptu speaking is unscripted and students have up to seven minutes to prepare and deliver a speech. They are handed a piece of paper with a topic they then speak about. In a typical competition, one prompt is about a current event, one is a quote and one is a word or phrase.

“You never know what the actual prompt is going to be, so we really have to prepare for everything,” she said.

Buschman said she typically takes 45 seconds to prepare her thoughts, then speaks for six minutes.

Her freshman and sophomore years she struggled with current events, but said she felt better prepared this year because of what she’s learning in Advanced Placement U.S. History.

“Even if I don’t know exactly what I’m talking about, I can pull on different points of American history,” she said.

Buschman said she likes how impromptu is so different every performance.

“You get the opportunity to shift every prompt in a way that you can talk about your own personal experiences, feelings and beliefs with every different speech that you do,” she said.

Buschman said she does best when she can talk about life and “lived experiences.” She said she often talks about favorite books or favorite movies.

“I always like to use points that I know I can drive home with my mannerisms as well as what I’m actually saying,” she said.

Nobmann says being state champion feels surreal.

“When Ella was state champion I remember thinking, ‘I can’t imagine doing that.’ But once I did it, it felt more attainable.”

Buschman said she hopes to repeat next year.

“I want to bring it back full force,” she said.