The large speech team made it past districts Jan. 24 where they received a division one rating from their district judge. They then moved on to state which was held Feb. 7 at Valley High School.

The five categories that are within large speech categories that were sent to state were short film, reader’s theater, group improvisation, ensemble acting and musical theater.

The reader’s theatre team, “Politically Correct Fairy Tales” was selected by the Iowa High School Speech Association as an All-State “Outstanding Performer” at the State Speech Contest. They will be moving onto All-State where they will be recognized for there accomplishment but will not perform.

For the large speech team as well as the coaches, English teachers Kelly Thompson and Jeremy Fitzpatrick, it is not the rating that is most important but rather what they get out of this experience at state.

“I would say that this is going to be a learning experience for people realizing how much focus, dedication, and rehearsal time is needed to do well,” Thompson said prior to the state competition. “I think Saturday (Feb. 7) will be a learning experience for some people because they are not ready for the level of competition that they are gonna see on Saturday.”

IHSSA, Iowa High School Speech Association also emphasizes that the competition is an opportunity to better yourself rather them beating others. “What I like about IHSSA is that you are not competing against other groups, you are competing against yourself,” Fitzpatrick said.

Large speech team practices began before winter break has all led up to these performances that could make All-State.

“It was an interesting experience for improve we would practice about three times a week after or before school,” senior Ethan Babcock said. “Short film is a lot of outside work on Friday (Feb.6) I was up unit 1:30 am in the morning trying to get the film done before state started.”

Right before the competition there was some pressure for the team since they will be competing against the best of state, but they were able to send one category to the All-State competition.

“We walked into it with the mentality that we had to step it up because it was a big deal,” junior Samantha Schaer said. “When we got up there we definitely gave our best performances and left very happy about it.”