Our Mustangs have made their way to State Speech and will be performing in Bettendorf, almost two and a half hours away from Monroe. The day of this exciting event will be held on Saturday, February 3. When talking to one of the coaches, Brooke Grett, she gave a lot of information about what State Speech is. She gives examples of speech and the students that will be attending. “Extracurricular speech is where students get to choose from what categories. It could be singing involved, it could be reading poetry, it could be working with… a lot of it is movement and facial expressions, so it’s really just being able to express yourself in a variety of ways. So this year we took five groups, two large group districts and two of those five groups went on to state. It was an ensemble piece with Max Kimball and Jordan VanDerWarf. And then another ensemble piece with Carter Dudley and Grace Taylor. And so they received division one ratings, and they got feedback from the judges.”

Then she was asked how a student would prepare themselves. She responded with, “Practicing all the time, whether it’s with a coach or not. A lot of times we’ll provide more feedback on just certain pauses, adding facial expressions, blocking, making sure that it’s really crisp, and that they have prepared and practiced a lot before they go onto the stage.”

The students given the opportunity to attend the State Speech were each asked the following questions: How are you feeling about going to the state for a speech? And what is something that you are looking forward to? Max Kimball and Jordan VanderWarf both say that they are excited and are looking forward to watching the other performances. Max also adds that he has a good feeling they will make it to all-state as well.

As for Grace Taylor, she answers, “I’m feeling nervous. I’m very excited because I didn’t make it last year, so this is a new opportunity for me. I’m really proud of all the work we have done, and I’m excited that more people are going to see all the hard work that we put in after school and before school. I’m looking forward to being able to perform in front of the new judges. I don’t know if we got feedback or not, but I feel like more people seeing it is going to be exciting.” When Carter Dudley answered, he exclaimed that he is excited and that, for the rest of the week and next, they were going to put the finishing touches. He also mentioned that he is excited to see the hard work of everything pay off.