At 7:00 am Saturday, February 4, students began pouring into the bus for a long ride to Dubuque for the State Speech Competition. Only three groups were competing, but many other students came anyways to support their peers and have fun at the traditional celebratory Olive Garden outing. All three groups that performed on Saturday earned straight ones, the highest score possible. “ I was very pleased with the results. Everyone getting straight 1’s is truly a feat, I’m proud of everyone that performed at districts and at state, and now we’re looking forward to the individual speech competition coming up soon,” says Mrs. Alexander, coach of the speech team.
The three groups that competed were a Readers Theatre Group performing The Audition starring Sarah Dodd, Anna Godfrey, Mia Godfrey, Haley Hart, Maddi McChesney, and Ben Siglin. As well as an ensemble acting group performing Crushed Petunias and featuring Randy Davenport and Keira Nobis. Last but not least was group improvisation with Noah Mclaughlin, Randy Davenport, Caleb Lillquist, and Jaden Smith. The latter group earned a spot at All-state in the non-performing category. “It was a lot of fun, and we really got to understand how to work with another and bounce ideas off of each other and figure out how each other thinks in the respective roles we played,” says senior Randy Davenport, member of the successful improv group. All in all, the state speech competition was a success for everyone, even those who couldn’t make it, and although the ride was three hours long, it didn’t feel long enough when there was a bus full of smiling faces, friends, and too many inside jokes to count.
In other news, congratulations to Anna Godfrey and Ben Siglin, who were The Lions Club 9NC performers in the Lions of Iowa Centennial Speech Contest. Anna portrayed Helen Keller and Ben portrayed Lions’ founder Melvin Jones. Ben Siglin won the entire speech competition and will be performing again in June at the Lions Convention in Cedar Rapids.
-Daniel Stephenson, MCHS Freshman