It’s the beginning of the high school speech season and Greene County and Paton-Churdan are gearing up for the first competition of the year.

This Saturday is District Large Group and for Greene County, Speech Coach Kelley Gray says they have 23 students participating in five categories including Choral Reading, Musical Theatre, Reader’s Theater, Group Improv and One Act. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio that there are no returning All-State performers, but that there is a great mix of students that have done speech before and some new people. Gray is looking forward to the new folks learning about what speech is and hoping to get some to qualify for state.

P-C Speech Coach Amanda Tasler says there are ten students involved in Large Group Speech this year, with all of them participating in Choral Reading and two will be doing Reader’s Theater. She states that the Choral Reading piece has a somber feel to it that also has a great deal of meaning to all of them, which they hope to convey in their performance. Tasler also details that the two-person Reader’s Theater is new for them and are looking forward to trying it out and learning what they can. 

Both high schools in Greene County are headed to Hoover High School in Des Moines on Saturday. State contest qualifiers will be announced early next week. The full list of what students are performing in can be found below.

Paton-Churdan

Choral Reading: Anastasia Hobbs, Bridget Hobbs, Catarina Hobbs, Ella Tasler,  Alivya Smith, Edynn Smith, Lily Trecker, Kaliyah Minnihan, Phoenix Hartman, Blaise Schilling.

Reader’s Theater: Ella Tasler and Blaise Schilling

Greene County

Choral Reading- Natalie Towers, Evelyn Snyder, London Harris, Becca Anderson, Savannah Lansman, and Olivia Smith

Reader’s Theater- Jaelynn Hedges, Teagan Warnke, Jordy Hinote, Ava Hinote, Alaina Gettler, Gabe Gerzema, Eli Hardaway, Eliza Elliott, Cheyenne Clouse 

Musical Theatre- Lucy Vander Linden and Carter Petterson

Group Improv- Savannah Lansman, Aden Bardole, Lucy Vander Linden

One Act- Aden Bardole, Olivia Sebourn, Ella Ostrander, Lynnsay Choate, Logan Edwards,  Calleigh Fitzpatrick