Area speech teams competed Saturday in the District Large Group Competition, and students from both Perry and Adel-DeSoto-Minburn high schools are headed to State.

Perry sent 11 groups to Roosevelt High School, and four groups advanced: short film, reader’s theater, and two ensemble acting pieces. Perry Speech Coach Wendy Bollhoefer says now the focus is on perfecting the pieces that advanced to State. “We have the ballot that the judge gave us, and there were a lot of really good comments on there. So we’ll go back through and talk about what things we want to change, what things we want to keep the same, and then we’ll just polish up a few rough edges. There are always some dropped lines here or there that can be rememorized.”

ADM sent 90 students, participating in 20 events, to Creston High School. Eleven entries advanced to State, including: freshman and varsity choral reading, reader’s theater, two musical theater groups, three ensemble acting pieces, a group mime, and two group improv teams. ADM Speech Coach Jacque Seidl echoed Bollhoefer, saying polishing the pieces is their goal ahead of state. “I try to keep the practices a little fun, because I don’t want them to get bored with practicing over and over, but it’s all about fine-tuning. Articulation, cleaning every little thing up. We stop a lot in our practices between Districts and State, because those little, tiny, minute details that they need to fix.”

The State Speech Competition will be held on Saturday, February 3rd at Waukee High School. Entries that earn “I” ratings and receive judge recommendations will advance to All-State on February 17 at Iowa State University. To hear more from Bollhoefer and Seidl, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.