Moving up: speech students set to succeed at state

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Charles City High School speech students are full of energy after a successful showing at District Large Group Speech contest last Saturday. As well they should be: every Charles City student who performed on Jan. 21 will join their classmates at the 2017 State Large Group Contest in Dubuque, on Feb. 4. Five out of the six performances Charles City entered received a 1 Rating, the highest offered at Districts and the prerequisite to moving up in the state.

“Everyone that went there is going to state in at least one event,” senior Nathaniel Reams, drama club president at Charles City High School, said. “I don’t remember ever doing that well at districts before.”

Coaches Brenda Bailey and Mike Lembke took a lot of notes during their students’ performances, they said.

“Having a live audience, they always step up. Everybody does,” Lembke said. “We saw some things that weren’t there before.”

“With all the missed days at school, the kids really stepped up at the end,” Bailey said. “They did what they needed to do that day, and that was really fun to see.”

Charles City did have to drop one team from the District competition after too many weather cancellations, Bailey said.

“In that case there were some students, some freshmen who didn’t get to go on,” Bailey said. “It’s great for the kids that are going on. I’m glad that everybody that was on the bus, we get to take them on to state –– and hopefully we’ll get at least one group to All-State.”

“I’m hoping that we can step it up for state, so we’re put apart from the other competition, and we can make it to All-State again like we have every year,” Reams said. “It would be great to have everyone go to All-State again.”

The team will be having an at-home showcase on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. in the 500 North Grand Auditorium.

“It would be wonderful to see other members of the community come and just see what the students are up to,” Bailey said.