North Cedar speech group wraps up season

CLARENCE - The North Cedar speech team worked very hard on their events this year, but failed to earn state berths.

Students competed in improve, ensemble, choral reading, reader's theater and solo mime at conference and districts, earning Division II ratings. A Division I rating is needed to get to state.

'At practices I really enjoyed watching the improve group practice they are very interesting and always have something to say to keep the topic going,” said Fiona Ramey, a North Cedar freshman. 'It's a surprise they didn't make it to state. Every time they perform they always have so much energy.”

Students who performed improve were Brittyn Wilhau, Keenan Pearson, Toby Hollis and Amy Schroeder in the first group. The second improve group was James Garner, Jaylin Pearson and Ethan St. John.

The choral reading group of Kealy Taylor, Kira Jones, Callie Meyer, Shroeder and Kayla Syring performed a piece called 'Impowerment.” The ensemble group of Raney, Syring and Emma Boleyn preformed 'Tough As Nails.” Raney performed a mime called 'Ice Cream.”

The reader's theater group was Hollis, Meyer, Boleyn, Jones, Wilhau, Breylee St. John, Garner and Kealy Taylor performed a piece called 'Bullied.”

Getting students ready to perform fell to North Cedar's speech coach Heather Davidson. This is Davidson's second year coaching speech at North Cedar. She coached at two other schools before coming to North Cedar. When Davidson was in high school she was in group speech and performed reader's theater, choral reading, television news and ensemble. She also did individual speech events like radio news, public address and poetry.

'I enjoy coaching speech because I get to see how far each student and group can improve as an actor and person,” she said.

Speech Competition is a great extracurricular activity to try out. We all need to be able to communicate with each other. You also get to make friends from different schools around the area and try your luck with public performance.