The Greene County High School vocal jazz ensemble continues to build off its success, even qualifying for one highly coveted contest.

Vocal Director David Heupel tells Raccoon Valley Radio Ram Jive took home a first place finish at the Emmetsburg Invitational this past Saturday. The group competed against five other high schools in Class 2A. He talks about the improvements he’s been seeing from Ram Jive.

“And the kids have been doing better every time that we perform. So back to (the) state contest at the beginning of February, our festival a week and a half ago, to this, the biggest thing is they just keep getting better. I don’t feel like placings are the biggest thing, but getting better every time is. I felt like that was the best we’ve done (at Emmetsburg) to be able to take home an award with it is a little icing on the cake.”

Perhaps the biggest recognition of all happened on Monday when it was announced that Ram Jive had been selected to perform at the Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships. Heupel says to qualify they had to submit a recording, which was from the performance they had at the state vocal jazz festival from February. He points out he intentionally didn’t tell the students when he would find out who made it to IVJC, but sent a text notification to the group on Monday.

“The text I sent, all I said was, ‘We’re back!’ And they didn’t know what I meant, so I let them know. So they accept eight schools from each class statewide. So we are one of eight schools in Class 2A that made the championships.” 

Heupel adds the group didn’t make IVJC last year and the year before they qualified but the contest was canceled because of covid, so the last time they performed at the championships was three years ago. The Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships takes place at West Des Moines Valley on March 29th.