Nodaway Valley celebrates seven large group speech events moving on to state contest

Seven large group speech events from Nodaway Valley made the cut out of a district contest held by Nodaway Valley Jan. 23 and will compete in a state contest Feb. 6 at Creston.

Because of COVID-19, speech coach Brenda Plymesser elected to utilize an option for district contest where the school could hire a judge and hold a district contest with only Nodaway Valley participants.

“The contest itself went very well. Some of the older kids who have been involved before were disappointed they didn’t get to do the bus ride and whole experience of going to another school,” Plymesser said. “Because of that, I’ve decided to go to Creston for our state speech contest. That will be a limited number of schools involved.”

That State Large Group Speech Contest will be this Saturday, Feb. 6 at Creston Community High School. Plymesser indicated that for students not comfortable going to another school this year there are two different virtual options available for competition.

Events advancing on to state are as follows:

• Musical Theater “Into the Woods”: Caidynce Schwartz, Jordan Kreager, Malachi Broers and Sophia Broers.

• One Act “A Bowl of Soup: Brooklyn Jackson, Cadee Firch, Dalanie Brown, Karley Shannon and Riley McCall.

• Group Mime “Strings”: Abigail Piearson and Sophia Broers.

• Short Film “Fairytale’s Tea”: Abigail Piearson, Ben Piearson, Breanna Van Horn, Caidynce Schwarz, Delanie Brown, Grace Britten, Harley Conklin, Hope Kading and Kyera Howell.

• Group Ensemble “Airport Text”: Cachlea Kennedy and Karley Shannon.

• Radio News Broadcasting “GAMR”: Colby Brown, Hunter Ellis, Marshall Greene and Matthew Mangels.

• Group Improvisation “Panic at the Improv” with Aidan Kuster, Jordan Kreager and Riley McCall.

Plymesser indicated that three other groups were close to making the cut but didn’t move on. These included a Reader’s Theater group with Aidan Kuster, Ashlyn Beaman, Carli Stuva, Cohen Bond, Genevieve Livingston, Isabella Hogan, Kayden Siegwarth and Kerigan Brown; a Musical theater group including Jennifer Holliday and Ellie Brewer and a Group Improvisation act by Cachlea Kennedy, Hope Kading and Kerigan Brown.

Plymesser says that as the large group portion of the speech season, she and her assistant coaches, Jaime Held and Lauren Huff, are impressed with the hard work the speech kids put into their acts.

“The thing about my speech kids is that they’re in other activities and they make time to practice for speech. They’re all very cooperative and work together well,” Plymesser said. “I put different kids in groups who weren’t necessarily friends and they worked together to get the job done.”